HafH 
uohB 



NECESSITY 



OP 



POPULAR EDUCATION, 



A NATIONAL OBJECT. 



NECESSITY 



OP 



POPULAR EDUCATION, 



A NATIONAL OBJECT; 



WITH 



HINTS ON THE TREATMENT OF CRIMINALS, AND 
OBSERVATIONS ON HOMICIDAL INSANITY. 



BY JAMES SIMPSON. 



Serene Philosophy ! 

Effusive source of evidence and truth, 

Without thee, what where unenlightened man I 

Seasons. 






X 



NEW-YORK: 

LEAV1TT, LORD & CO. 
182 Broadway. 

B O S T O N.— C ROCKER & BREWSTER, 

47 Washington-street. 

1834. 



Q ! 



4J 



PREFACE. 



A deep conviction and solemn feeling of the neces- 
sity — the urgency — of a great National measure for 
enlightening, and morally elevating, the great body of 
our countrymen, are the author's motives for offering 
the following pages to the deliberate consideration of 
the public. Whether they shall think his views more 
just and practical than those that may have been be- 
fore them, in a hundred other works on the "inter- 
minable theme of education," it is not for him to an- 
ticipate ; but he ventures to hope that they will find 
the subject placed in a light somewhat different from 
any with which they are already familiar. He appeals 
to the Crisis — a great increase of popular power, an 
immense extension of popular influence, without com- 
mensurate directing knowledge, and controlling vir- 
tue ; and he claims a patient hearing, as the right of 
the humblest contributor to the difficult subject, to 
receive, and the duty of every wellwisher of his coun- 
try and his species, to bestow. In this treatise the 
reader's attention will be called to larger views of 
the subject of education, in its principles and prac- 
tice, than he may have met with before, and that 
in relation to all classes of the community, for 
the education of man, adapted to his nature, knows 



PREFACE. 



no distinction of ranks ; but he will likewise, it 
is humbly hoped, see the limit defined, to which 
the education of every sane human being ought to 
be carried, in order to fit him for that place in 
the social system, and in the creation of God, for 
which he was called into being. "With the diffi- 
dence becoming the attempt, and the deference due 
to his masters in the science of national economy, 
the author has ventured to propose a plan of po- 
pular education for public approbation, and legisla- 
tive adoption ; content if it shall move that discussion, 
by which it cannot fail to be greatly improved. He 
will be more than enough rewarded, too, if he shall 
succeed in reviving some share of interest in the neg- 
lected subject of the philosophy of Man, and his rela- 
tions to external things, without which the science of 
education must remain, as it has hitherto remained, 
incapable of practical application, and therefore a dis- 
carded weariness. He repeats that the object presses, 
— that it is exciting anxious inquiry, — and that it is 
shortly destined to rouse the attention of the most 
careless and inobservant dweller in the land. 



CONTENTS. 



INTRODUCTION. 

Page 

Education not yet placed on a right basis— Sound views exist, but 
are not systematised — The present an attempt at their combi- 
nation — " Ignorance prevails to a horrible extent" — The truth 
that it is connected with suffering practically disbelieved — Ap- 
peal to fear — to justice and benevolence — Just notions of the 
general happiness — Intellectual and moral necessary to physi- 
cal improvement — Direct enjoyment from intellectual and mo- 
ral elevation — The higher faculties of man are the gift of God, 
and intended for cultivation, use, and enjoyment. . . 13-16 



CHAPTER I. 

ON THE EFFECTS OF IGNORANCE ON THE CONDITION OF THE 
MANUAL-LABOUR CLASS OF THE PEOPLE. 

Manual Labourers seven-eighths of the population — Twofold divi- 
sion of the people — 1st, Physical condition of manual-labour 
class — Their ignorance of the conditions of health — Neglect of 
air, houses, beds, skin, ablution, muscular exercise — Cholera 
— x^rdent Spirits and Sunday drunkenness — Temperance So- 
cieties — Transmission of diseases to offspring — Mortality of in- 
fants — Faults of Servants — Manufacturers. — 2d, Intellec- 
tual condition of manual-labour class — Their prejudices, &c. 
— The dupes of the designing— Absurd flattery addressed to 
them — Labour market — Striking for wages. — 3d, Moral con- 
dition of manual-labour class — Their faculties work as instincts 
— Malicious destroying and defacing — Cruelty to animals — 
Other causes of low condition — Effects of the Poor laws and 



CONTENTS. 

Page 

Allowance system— Religious condition— Present provision for 
education— Reading and writing— Scotch parochial schools- 
Prevailing prejudices, . . • -'.''• 17-33 



CHAPTER II. 

ON THE EFFECTS OF IMPERFECT EDUCATION ON THE CONDITION 
OF THE CLASS OF THE PEOPLE ABOVE MANUAL LABOUR. 

The term "Educated class," relative — Our vast attainments in 
Physical Science— Confusion and error in Moral world— Con- 
troversy and party divisions — Contrast of sound legislation — 
General selfishness— Demands of Christianity— Religion of 
the "Educated"— Large provision for it— Want of educa- 
tional preparation— Fanaticism and insanity— Certain social 
defects remnants of barbarism, national jealousies, offensive 
wars, criminal code, &c. — Barbarous customs, fox-hunting, 
engrossing rural sports, &c. — Happiness not attained, reasons 
—False views of life— Young men of fortune— Waste of life, 
wealth, and happiness, by the affluent — Their marriages — Se- 
dentary study — Instructive illustrations on this head — Incogi- 
tate pursuit of wealth — Over-trading, glutted markets — Un- 
welcome inquiry — Good admitted — Causes of our social evils 
— No moral training in education — Milton, Locke, Kames — 
Reading — Dead languages — False morality of classics — Bar- 
barism of the ancients — Scientific studies— Science of man, 
physiological, mental, and moral, a blank in Education, . 34-59 



CHAPTER III. 

ON THE FACULTIES OF MAN, AND THEIR RELATIVE OBJECTS. 

Man the being to be educated — Knowledge of his nature required 
r— Training horses and dogsr— Education, its three essentials — 
Human body, improvement of — The senses — their objects — 
Faculties of mind disputed-^-Modes mistaken for faculties — Ad- 
mitted view of man's nature — Shakspeare's and Scott's— Pos- 
tulates to be conceded— Physiological evidence not founded on 
^-Experience— nine animal propensities— Self-Love— Desire 
of estimation— Fear — Inferior feelings what— Law in the mind 
— Benevolence — Justice — Veneration — Ethics — Christianity 
— Seven other moral sentiments— Intellect— Knowing faculties 
^-Reflecting— Language— Tabular view of faculties— Possess- 



CONTENTS. ix 

Page 



ed by all, but in different degrees— Innate and Permanent- 
Combination— Degrees of rank in faculties— Supremacy of 
Sentiments and Intellect illustrated— Mr. Combe's original 
views, ....... 60-83 



CHAPTER IV. 

ON EDUCATION AS ADAPTED TO THE FACULTIES INFANT 

EDUCATION. 

Faculties improveable— Man, how made wiser, how better— Law 
of exercise of faculties— Each- faculty on its own objects- 
Exercise of one faculty does not improve another— Faculties 
that require regulation, excitement, direction of intellect- 
Loadstar of education— Pupil's study of his own faculties, and 
their objects— Education, Physical, Moral, Intellectual— In- 
fant Education, to commence in the cradle— Infant school, 
Physical training, Moral, Intellectual — Real and verbal — Pes- 
talozzi and Mayo — Lessons on Objects— Summary of education 
of faculties— Edinburgh Model Infant School— Religious im- 
pressions, no distinction of sects, preparative— Agency of Man 
in this— Divine blessing — Intolerance deprecated— Edinburgh 
Infant School on liberal basis— Progress and success of the 
school — Prizes and places— Great merit of Wilderspin — Pre- 
judices against Infant education, objections answered, . 84-103 



CHAPTER V. 

ON EDUCATION AS ADAPTED TO THE FACULTIES CONTINUED. 
EDUCATION SUBSEQUENT TO INFANCY. 

Pupils six years old — School till fourteen — Moral training conti- 
nued—Record of duties— Monitorial system— Writing— Draw- 
ing — Arithmetic — Continuation of the Mayo lessons — Inci- 
dental teaching— Incidental reading— Incidental grammar— N o 
spelling — Lessons on chymical substances, solid, fluid, gaseous 
■ — Chymical experiments — Chymical elements — Knowledge of 
man in body and mind— Geography— Globe— Incidental As- 
tronomy — Civil History — Geometry — Mechanical Science— - 
Natural History— Incidental Natural Theology— Study of na- 
ture naturalized — Lessons on political state — Lessons on poli- 
tical economy — Exercise of the reflecting powers — Maxims 
and proverbs—Education for all— For peculiar talents or 



X CONTENTS. 

Page 

turns— Science taught to the young, to the -working classes, to 
females— Educational Code— Training Teachers— Schools of 
Industry— American schools of manual labour— Domestic ser- 
-viee— Ulterior education— Languages— Classics— College, 104-124 



CHAPTER VI. 

ON A JUST ESTIMATE OF civiL HISTORY, AS A STUDY FOR YOUTH. 

History as an advanced study — Just views of it — A chronicle of 
the animal propensities— Characteristics of antiquity — Fall of 
empires when natural — Details hurtful to youth — Patriot he- 
roism — Passion for war— Martial glory applauded and reward- 
ed--Internal polity of antiquity— Asia and Egypt— Monotony 
of propensities — Tyrannies, caprices, and childishness— 
" Free" states of antiquity, Greece, and Rome — No recog- 
nised principle of liberty — Ingratitude to public benefactors — 
Benevolence and justice foundations of free institutions — Self- 
ish ambition of public men in Athens and Rome — Tribes that 
.overthrew the Roman empire— How history should be written 
—How taught— Abridgment— Dark ages— Since Reformation 
—Should be a late study, • . . . 125-133 



CHAPTER VII. 

ON POPULAR EDUCATION AS THE DUTY OF THE NATION — PLAN 
PROPOSED. 

Burdens from popular ignorance — Education ought to be free— - 
Working class cannot obtain it— Always has been at public 
expense — School fees — Voluntary schools precarious — Work- 
ing class indifferent— Gratis experiment— Claims of working 
class — They pay bulk of taxes — Nation must educate them — 
Commissioners— Minister— Code— The What of education 
—Practical arrangements— Proposed building and airing 
ground—School and scientific apparatus— Normal schools for 
training teachers — First and second grants — Control and super- 
intendence — No lack of teachers — Legitimate compulsion on 
parents — Something immediately to be done— Extract from 
the Edinburgh Review, .... 134-149 



CONTENTS. XI 

CHAPTER VIII. 

DIFFICULTIES — OBSTACLES — ENCOURAGEMENTS. 

Page 

Difficulties— Counteraction by adult population— Reaction up- 
on them— Decrease of drunkenness—Course with adults— In- 
curable class— Edinburgh Association for cheap lectures — 
Provision for free instruction to the adult workman — Schools 
of Arts— Denial of leisure to the manual labourer— Proposed 
restriction of labour— Workmen will restrict it— Farther re- 
striction in factories— Poor Laws' abuses — Criminal popula- 
tion.— Obstacles — Humble indifference — Remote results — Ex- 
ample of direct enjoyment from moral sentiments — Direct 
benefits — Great expense — Prejudice against educating the 
people — Existing interests — Sectarian zeal — Origin of clerical 
superintendence — Solecism in our laws — Church in danger — 
Opposition to Lancasterian Schools, to London University, 
to Irish National Education — Parallel in Catholic bigotry in 
Glasgow — Practical inference' — Appeal to the dominant sect, 
to the government, to the people. — Encouragements — Advoca- 
cy of the Press — We are outstripped by other nations — Wishes 
of the Government and Legislature— Existence of improve- 
ments already— Education of all ranks together — Conclu- 
sion, . . . . . . 150-175 



APPENDIX. 



No. L 

Hints on the Necessity of a Change of Principle in our Legisla- 
tion for the Efficient Protection of Society from Crime, . 177 

No. II. 

Observations on the Degree of Knowledge yet applied to the In- 
vestigation of Insanity, in Trials for Crime, chiefly Violence 
and Homicide . .... 209 

No, III. 

Extract from Report of the Edinburgh Infant School Society, 
8th May, 1832, . . . . .235 



CONTENTS. 

Page 



No. IV. 



Letter from Mr. Cunningham, Head Master of the Edinburgh In- 
stitution for Languages, Mathematics, &c. • • 248 

No. V. 

Specimen of the Daily Record of Duties, Organic, Moral, Reli- 
gious, and Intellectual, as kept for one Week, , . 250 

No. VI. 

Summary of the Proceedings of the Association for procuring In- 
struction in Useful and Entertaining Science, from its Institu- 
tion in 1832 to April 1834, ; . ... 251 

No. VII. 

Extract from. the First Report of the Commissioners appointed by 
the Lord Lieutenant to administer the Funds granted by Par- 
liament for the Education of the Poor of Ireland, ordered to be 
printed by the House of Commons, 3d March, 1834, . . 260 



POPULAR EDUCATION. 



INTRODUCTION. 



Education not yet placed on a right basis — Sound views exist, but are 
not systematised — The present an attempt at their combination— 
"Ignorance prevails to a horrible extent" — The truth that it is con- 
nected with suffering practically disbelieved— Appeal to fear — to 
justice and benevolence — Just notions of the general happiness — 
Intellectual and moral necessary to physical improvement — Direct 
enjoyment from intellectual and moral elevation — The higher 
faculties of man are the gift of God, and intended for cultivation, 
use, and enjoyment. 



It is matter of deep regret to the first men of the age, that 
Education has not yet been placed upon a practically useful 
basis. It is felt that it is imperfectly enjoyed even by the 
educated, utterly withheld from the multitude, and not yet sys- 
tematised either in principles or plan. In presuming to offer to 
the public the following treatise, there is one avowal which the 
mthor cheerfully and gratefully makes, While failure to sys- 
tematise education has disappointed much talent and worth which 
have been engaged on the subject, yet in many a reflective and 
eloquent page there are views unfolded which possess the 
character of essential truth, and offer ready materials to the 
hand of the architect of a more practically useful structure than 
the authors themselves erected. It may safely be predicated, 
that there already exists a large proportion of the materials of a 
philosophical system of education, not rough in the quarry, but 
almost marked by their symmetry for their places in the build- 
ng, and inviting their own combination, as a comparatively easy 
task to a very inferior workman who will collect them together. 
Such is the utmost pretension of the following attempt. The 

2 



14 SOUND VIEWS — IGNORANCE — SUFFERING. 

reader who is familiar with works on education, will perhaps 
scarcely discover in these pages a thought which in substance he 
has not met with before ; but if he shall find known thoughts in 
combinations different from any in which he may hitherto have 
recognised them, and better adapted to the great end to which 
they were directed, the utmost success for which the author 
dares to look, will have attended his humble labours. A new 
combination, for a beneficial end, of existing constructions, is an 
invention entitling to the royal patent. Every one is welcome 
to claim for himself, or any one else, any such stray idea, if he 
detects it in the foJlowing work ; all the author asks is the use 
of it. 

It is most important for us all to be aware that much intel- 
lectual and moral darkness broods upon, our land; that "igno- 
rance prevails to a horrible extent" * in our country ; that 
on ignorance must ever attend suffering, physical and moral; 
and suffering accordingly abounds. In the resolutions of the 
British and Foreign School Society of March 1831, the con- 
fession is more than once emphatically made, that " England is 
yet uneducated." Dr. Chalmers says yet more despondingly, 
" In the grievous defect of our national institutions, and the 
wretched abandonment of a people left to themselves, and who 
are permitted to live recklessly and at random as they list, we 
see enough to account for the profligacy of our crowded cities, 
and for the sad demoralization of our neglected provinces."! 
But connexion, in the closest relation of cause and effect, be- 
tween ignorance and all this profligacy and demoralization, is 
by no means a practical belief with a large portion of the educa- 
ted classes themselves ; and this is the only assignable reason 
for the amazing indifference, the incredulity, and even scorn, 
with which all plans, schemes, and projects, for the enlighten- 
ment of the great body of the people, are yet treated. 

The Edinburgh Review % has made a pointed appeal against 
this error to the public fears. None are safe, most certainly, 
in the centre of pestilence, in daily contact with profligacy, de- 
moralization, and crime ; but our fears are inferior impulses, and 
are not adequate to generous purposes ; of these purposes, higher 
motives are the fitting guides, noble faculties the ministers. 
Our fellow-men shall share our lights, if we have any ; not that 
we may be more safe, but that they may be more happy. The 
best selfishness is justice, and, higher yet, an unselfish benevo- 
lence, overflowing in its own disinterested exuberance. The 
Creator will not bless any lower motive to do good. His sys- 

* Lord Chancellor Brougham's Speech at the Wilberforce Meeting 
at York, October 1833. 

t Bridgewater Treatise. t No. 117. 



JUST NOTIONS OF HAPPINESS. 15 

tern Is arranged upon the supremacy of justice and benevolence 
in Creation, and Christianity is mainly addressed to these facul- 
ties in man. Till we ourselves have light and truth and love 
enough to see and feel that our own good flows as a secondary 
but invariable consequence, from our efforts exerted, primarily 
and, in their motives, exclusively, for our fellow-men, we shall 
in vain attempt to improve them, — we must first improve our- 
selves. 

Besides being actuated by a powerful impulse to increase the 
general happiness, we must arrive at just notions as to the true 
nature of that happiness. It is an error, springing from limited 
views of human capabilities, to rest satisfied with the physical 
weal of our fellow-men. The benevolence of Henry IV. of 
France yearned for the happiness of his people, but his lights 
were satisfied with wishing that there was " a fowl in the pot 
of every peasant in his kingdom." Had he directed his utmost 
kingly power solely to achieve this physical object, he would 
have failed. It is by operating on the moral and intellectuaP 
man, that the only steady and permanent provision is made for 
lis physical wants. The peasant must be capacitated to proyide \ 
his own fowl, if he is to enjoy it often. The kind-hearted mo- 
narch would have given the fowl, if he could, and often repeated 
the dole ; but he would thereby have degraded the whole charac- 
ter of his people, and unfitted them for the attainment of sub- 
stantial permanent prosperity. The only true channel of 
physical comfort will be found in cultivated intellectual and 
moral powers. Besides attaining the self-denying, upright be- 
nevolently-co-operating, and industrious habits, which live in the 
very atmosphere of an improved morality, an enlightened intellect 
looks before and after, observes relations, calculates conse- 
quences, and, according to the nature of things, avoids evil, and 
secures good. But this is not all ; it is the humblest office of an 
elevated moral and intellectual character to improve the physical 
condition ; when it has established bodily comfort, and, what is 
a new contemplation for the thinking few, reasonable leisure 
from reasonable toil, — an indispensable element, as shall here- 
after appear, of human weal, physical and moral, — it is in itself 
a positive good, a source of direct enjoyment, far above the 
richest material possessions. This scarcely requires illustration 
to the enlightened and the moral. They have only to reflect 
how small a proportion of their enjoyment is physical or sensual, 
when compared with that which consists in the refined delights 
of knowledge, of taste, of feeling, and of sentiment, reaped from 
books and social converse, from the acts of benevolence, and 
from the acknowledgments of religious thankfulness and adora- 
tion. These give the chief value to easy circumstances,. not the 
mere command of material accommodations; and it is from these 



16 INTELLECTUAL AND MORAL ENJOYMENT, 

that the great bulk of our fellow-men are excluded, by the ex- 
haustion of their time and strength in labour, and by their want 
of capacity, from deficient education, to convert their leisure, if 
,any they had, to these higher enjoyments. The Creator has 
( given to every man some portion of intellect, some share of 
j moral sentiment, intended not merely to control his animal ap- 
petites, for the preservation of his own safety, but to furnish him 
with pure and refined delight, which we have only to conceive 
sufficiently intense, to gain a faint glimpse of Heaven. Let 
those who despair of human nature, reflect that, if He has given 
to man a share of those high endowments which are the only real 
approach to his own image, then assuredly he has designed them 
for cultivation, for use, and for high enjoyment. To deny this,. 
—and it is practically denied in our abandonment of seven eighths. 
of our countrymen to ignorance and all its evils, — is to deny 
that the intellectual and moral nature of man is the work of Gad 



17 



CHAPTER I. 

ON THE EFFECTS OF IGNORANCE ON THE CONDITION OF THE 
MANUAL-LABOUR CLASS OF THE PEOPLE. 



Manual Labourers seven eighths of the population — Twofold division of 
the People — 1st, Physical condition of manual-labour class — Their 
ignorance of the conditions of health — Neglect of air, houses, beds, 
skin, ablution, muscular exercise— Cholera — Ardent Spirits and Sun- 
day drunkenness — Temperance Societies — Transmission of diseases 
to offspring — Mortality of infants— Faults of servants — Manufactur- 
ers^d, Intellectual condition of manual-labour class — Their pre- 
judices, &c. — The dupes of the designing — Absurd flattery address- 
ed to them — Labour market — Striking for wages. — 3d, Moral condi- 
tion of manual-labour class — Their faculties work as instincts — Ma- 
licious destroying and defacing—Cruelty to animals — Other causes of 
low condition — Effects of the Poor laws and Allowance system — Re- 
ligious condition — Present provision for education — Reading and 
writing— Scottish parochial schools — Prevailing prejudices. 



The production and preparation for man's use, of the mate- 
terial necessaries, comforts, luxuries^ and elegancies of life, oc- 
cupy the hands of nearly seven eighths of the population of 
this country. Machinery is only a combination of tools to ex- 
tend the power of the hand. Still more than seven eighths of our 
population live by labour of some kind, either of hand or head; 
so that there is not perhaps a fiftieth part of the whole popula- 
tion of Britain who live entirely independent of labour. TfuV 
last mentioned limited class, for my present purpose at least, may 
be ranked with those who work not with the hands ; so that we 
may assume a twofold division of the British people into the 
manual-labour class, and the class above manual labour. In 
considering the condition of the manual labour class, it must not 
be lost sight of, that they are endowed in kind, though not ge- 
nerally in degree, with the like capabilities of education with 
the class above them, with the like faculties for the attainment 
of knowledge, moral elevation, and genuine religion. 

1. The Physical condition of the whole class of manual 



18 PHYSICAL CONDITION — AIR— BEDS — ABLUTION. 

labourers, is much worse than it might be rendered, and render- 
ed by themselves, if they were more enlightened than they are. 
Making allowance for grades in their condition, and individual 
exceptions, a great majority of that class are left utterly unin- 
structed in, and live of course in disregard of, the simplest con- 
ditions of health. In too many instances* the light and air, 
which Heaven bestows and man excludes, very imperfectly en- 
ter to cheer and purify their dwellings, noisome with animal 
and vegetable effluvia, and accumulated refuse. In the worst 
cases they sleep in beds,— often several persons in one, — which 
rarely know cleanly change, and have become infectious as the 
depositories of weeks of insensible perspiration, ascertained to 
be nearly a pound weight from each adult in twelve hours. 
The nocturnal consumption of the air of a crowded room, ren- 
ders it a positive poison to the lungs, the heart, and the blood ; 
and when the workman has to contend with a deleterious trade 
during the day, what must the effect be, upon his health, of the 
atmosphere and contact of his repose 1 Rising from this dor- 
mitory, of whose operation on his constitution he is profoundly 
unconscious, the manual labourer resumes his day garments, in 
part of which he has probably slept, and "unwashed" returns 
to his labour. He has never learned the import of the word " un- 
washed,"— the diseases external and internal of an unheeded 
skin,— the consequences ' of obstructing that exquisite organ 
which exhales waste, and therefore hurtful, matter from the 
system, aids importantly in the regulation of the animal heat, is 
an agent of absorption, and the seat of touch and sensation. 
Nature lavishes water, as she is profuse of pure air for which 
eveiy vital function pants ; but water is refreshing, detersive, 
and luxurious, in vain to the son of toil.f Mr. Thackrah of 
Leeds, the able and useful writer upon the diseases incident to 
trades, says, on the subject of ablution, " There are other 
trades, in which the surface of the body is affected, though in a 
less degree, by the peculiar substances applied ; but, without en- 
tering into further detail, I would urge the necessary effect of 

* It is important to offer a caveat against being thought to state the 
case too strongly against this class of my countrymen. We have all 
seen many clean and comfortable houses belonging to workmen. Very 
generally, however, we observe a disregard of ventilation ; and if we 
perceive a want of this essential of health in their houses, we are led to 
suspect the state of their beds. I not only will permit every manual 
labourer, who conscientiously can, to claim exemption from my descrip- 
tion, but should rejoice that the exemptions were numerous. 

t This, and other conditions of health, are admirably treated of in a 
work just published by Dr. Andrew Combe of Edinburgh, on the 
5S Principles of Physiology applied to the Preservation of Health, and to 
the Improvement of Physical and Mental Education." Republished 
in Harper's " Family Library"— New- York, 1834, 



MUSCULAR EXERTION — DISEASES — CHOLERA. 19 

almost all the occupations of a manufacturing town, in fueling 
the skin. When we consider the functions which this organ 
is known to perform, independently of those which physiology 
suspects but has not ascertained, when we refer to the natural 
products of the skin, insensible perspiration, sweat, unctuous 
matter, &c, we wonder how men can endure the compound 
crust of soot, dust, and secretions, with which they are envelop- 
ed. Throughout the whole of the labouring classes, and indeed 
among the majority of the middling and upper, this subject is 
strangely neglected. Cleanliness is practised in a very imper- 
fect manner, the whole surface is seldom washed ; and, in most 
persons, the body, with the exceptions of the hands and face, is 
cleaned only by the removal of those impurities which adhere 
to the linen. Bathing is rarely used in any form." 

It is another condition of health that the muscular frame shall 
be suitably exercised by motion and exertion. Some kinds of 
manual labour, and these besides often in the open air, exercise 
generally the muscular frame, and such labourers are the most 
healthy ; while other kinds are carried on in confined and ill- 
aired rooms, or manufactories which are loaded with flying 
dust, and deleterious effluvia, and afford no exercise beyond a 
movement of the fingers, or a turn of the wrist. A few minutes 
of fresh air between his work-shop and his home, is tha work- 
man's portion of that cheapest and best of luxuries ; and worn 
out in mind as well as body, by the monotony of twelve or four- 
teen hoars' employment, he swallows his meal, often drinks 
ardent spirits, which aggravate greatly the power of every other 
destroyer of his constitution; and in the same bed, and the same 
air, he spends the night, as he did the night before, in the unre- 
freshing sleep of already formed disease. Can w'e wonder that 
fevers, cutaneous, and other infectious diseases, originate in the 
unheeded persons, neglected beds, and unventilated dwellings of 
many of this class of the people. When the irruption of the 
Cholera forced us — I wish I could say from higher impulses than 
" fear 1 * — to enter the manual labourer's abode, and explore the 
state in which he lived, a very general want of cleanliness was 
discovered, and in many houses a horrible state of filth. Swine- 
sties were in some instances found in the same room, already 
squalid with human crowdedness. The disclosure was too hu- 
miliating and alarming ever to be forgotten, and it was the first 
step to the cure of so great an evil, that it should be fully known. 

When to all now described is superadded the curse of ardent 
sphits, the physical degradation of the manual labourer is com- 
plete ; and as a temporary stimulus to weakened nerves and a 
vacant mind, this vice is dreadfully prevalent among his class. 
He has from his childhood been left in profound ignorance of the 
effects of the practice upon the functions of his body, and in the 



§0 DRUNKENNESS — TEMPERANCE SOCIETIES. 

degradation of his character. In the society in which he Jives? 
on the contrary, he has been accustomed, from his childhood, to 
connect drinking with manly privilege, conviviality, and plea- 
sure, and to deem it not only safe, but wholesome and beneficial. 
Sunday is a day of too prevalent intoxication among the manual- 
labour class; and their employers well know, that Monday and 
even Tuesday are in consequence what are called slack days in 
the workshop and manufactory. I have been assured, by be- 
nevolent medical practitioners who visit the worst classes of 
manual labourers, that they find it unsafe, as well as disgusting, 
to go among them on the days of their orgies, when the scenes of 
beastly drunkenness which they witness are altogether indescrib- 
able. It will afterwards appear how education may be brought 
to bear upon this shocking vice, which is, in a greater degree 
than is generally supposed, a sin of ignorance. Without early 
{ moral training and intellectual enlightenment, it is to be feared that 
1 those well-meant experiments called Temperance Societies, will 
do little to reform that part of the class in question who most 
require it. What is their vow to abstain, if you should get it, 
against their appetite to indulge 1 The vow binds none whom 
light and knowledge would not have more securely bound ; and 
it is well known to be a fact, that the example of the vow has no 
effect on the ignorant and the debased. Vows are rejected by 
the truly moral : they would as soon think of tying their own 
hands: they are on principle members of the society of tempe- 
rance, without such artificial or mechanical aid ; they use all 
things as not abusing them, and need not the compulsion of an 
oath or an undertaking. It is knowledge of the mischiefs of 
spints-d: inking that has brought all the sincere adherents of the 
societies within their pale ; their only error is their vow. None 
will join them without knowledge, and when knowledge is at- 
tained generally, Temperance Societies will cease to be neces- 
sary. However, by all means, let all tie their own hands, who 
\ think they need that mode of restraint; the motive is inferior. 
\ but much direct good will follow the restraint. 

The manual labourer whom filth, foul air, muscular and nerv- 
ous relaxation aggravated by ardent spirits, have combined to 
predispose to and affect with disease,, has had no lesson ever 
taught him that his weakened frame, predispositions, and actu- 
ally formed diseases, will be the wretched inheritance of his 
children, if he shall become a father. The same ignorance that 
has induced his own condition, renders him reckless of the 
misery if not guilt of transmitting it. He himself derived a 
tainted constitution, perhaps, from his progenitor, and, with his 
own actual deteriorations superadded, conveys it to his offspring; 
a few such generations must- extinguish the stock — the verv 
source of such a population. If infants are born in poisonous air 



Faults of servants. 2% 

nursed in infectious beds, swathed in scanty and unchanged 
clothing, denied those ablutions so notoriously indispensable to 
the skin, when most vasculent and more active and important in 
the infant economy than all the viscera put together, — the last 
tasked beyond their power by the reflux circulation which an un- 
contiacted and unobstructed skin would have disposed of, — is 
there just cause of wonder that they are swept away in thousands 
by convulsions, croups, and bowel-complaints, or that the seeds 
are sown in infancy of the numerous diseases of after life 1 The v 
London bills of mortality prove that nearly a fourth of the infants 
baptised, die within the first two years from their birth. This 
mortality is not the design of the Creator : it is not true of the 
inferior animals, and therefore must have removeable causes ; 
which causes will assuredly be found in gross ignorance. The 
animals are guided aright by their instincts ; man ought to be di- 
rected as truly by his observing and reflecting powers, which 
were given him for that end; but then the condition of cultivation 
and improvement was annexed to the gift, and that command of 
the All- wise is forgotten or disobeyed. 

I have often thought the general complaint of annoyance from 
the faults of domestic servants scarcely reasonable, when we con- 
sider the class from which we receive them. With all the 
habits of negligence, disorderliness, and insensibility to filth and 
foul air, in w r hich they have, in many cases, been born, nursed,, 
and bred, they enter our houses, and most readily undertake to 
keep them in proper order, to anticipate the numberless minutiae 
of our personal accommodations, and at once supply, by intuition 
or sympathy, our wants, nay our whims. We soon find, though 
here, too, there are rare exceptions, that their notions and ours 
on all these points, differ widely. Great disarray and want of 
cleanliness to us, is order, neatness, and sweetness to them ; ven- 
tilating of rooms, and airing of beds, are to them mere trouble- 
some fancies; dusting is an unnecessary disturbance of what by 
nature, falls so noiselessly and lies so impartially ; they remove,, 
of course, only what is pointed out to them, and sit down con- 
tentedly in the midst of what remains. Jn nothing should we 
reap more every-day satisfaction from judicious education, than 
in the improvement of our domestic servants. 

Mr. Thackrah directs an enlightened attention to the causes 
of unwholesomeness in manufactories, and trades in general, but 
almost all his suggestions imply the co-operating enlightenment 
of the work-people themselves.* 

* I have just heard of a very promising contrivance for at one and 
the same time carrying off the dust from the atmosphere of cotton and 
flax-mills, and affording them ventilation. A series of circular perfora . 

Wns are made in the floors, connected with the open air by tubes 
heels are fitted into the holes, flush with the floor, and are moved ra. 



22 CLEANLINESS — WASHING-STATIONS. 

I anticipate the answer to all that has been said to me on the 
subject of the physical negligences of the manual-labour class, 
namely, that they have nu leisure to be cleanly in their persons, 
beds, and dwellings. From rest barely sufficient, they are sum- 
moned to renew their toil, and, after the close of day, they have 
neither time nor inclination for any thing but food and repose. 
I admit the menstrous evils, physical and moral, of excessive or 
over-prolonged labour, and in the sequel will submit some re- 
marks on the practicability of a reasonsable abridgement of the 
toil of the manual labourer, for the purpose of education and im- 
provement, and that by wiser and more efficient means than com- 
binations to obtain it by force, to be spent, as unquestionably it 
now would be, in idleness and sensuality ; but I deny that clean- 
liness and ventilation are incompatible with even the present de- 
gree of labour. There is time found for the ale-bench and the 
gin-shop. If cleanliness had been constituted a want, with an 
appetite as strong, there would have been no neglect of it in the 
most overworked labourer. Personal ablution is the operation 
of a few minutes, ventilation is the opening of a window and a 
door, airing a bed is turning it down for an' hour, instead of mak- 
ing it up warm ; while clean body and bed clothes might be 
made a benefit of cheap and easy attainment, by the establishment, 
in every town of public washing-stations for boiling and line- 
drying.* The real obstacle is the utter indifference to and dis- 
inclination to the trouble of, cleanliness, which arises from ig- 
norance of its benefits, and of the evils of its neglect. I shall here- 
after show how simply this most useful practical knowledge may 
be early and habitually impressed on the minds of the manual-la- 
bour class, to the immense improvement of their physical condi- 
tion. 

2. The intellectual condition of the working-class we can 
scarcely expect, after what has been said of their physical, to 
find much more advanced ; it is in truth very low, and this I 
fear with fewer exceptions of importance. Who has not felt and 
deplored, in his intercourse with nearly the whole class, even 
what are deemed the most " decent" and respectable, the mass 

pidly round by the machinery. The dust, is sucked out by these wheels 
as through so many whirlpools, and a current of used air is kept con- 
stantly following the dust, while fresh is supplied by other apertures. 

* A plan for this purpose was submitted to the Lord Provost of Edin- 
burgh two years ago. But this is far outdone by a washing and dry- 
ing apparatus, both by the agency of steam, for which Mr. Lemuel 
Wright, 91 London Road, London, has a patent. Hot water charged 
with soap is several times forced by steam through the clothes packed 
in a copper vessel ; — this is followe'd by hot water pure : — and this by 
simple steam, which rapidly dries the clothes. Half an hour completes 
a washing, and that without manual labour, or the attendance of the 
owner. 



FLATTERY — VIOLENCE STRIKES FOR WAGES. 23 

of prejudice, superstition, and general ignorance, which he is 
doomed to encounter 1 The working man rarely knows how to 
better his lot in life, by rational reflection on causes and conse- 
quences, founded on early acquaintance with the simpler princi- 
ples of trade, the state of particular employments, the legitimate 
relation between labour and capital, and between labourer and 
employer, the best employment of surplus earnings, the value of 
character, the marketable importance, to say no more, of sober 
and moral habits and intelligence, in short, on any practical views 
of the circumstances which influence his condition. On the con- 
trary, he is the creature of impressions and impulses, the unre- 
sisting slave of sensual appetites, the ready dupe of the quack, 
the thrall of the fanatic, and, above all, the passive instrument of 
the political agitator, whose sinister views and falsehoods he is 
unable to detect, and who, by flattering his passions and preju- 
dices* has power to sway him, like an overgrown child, to his pur- 
poses of injustice, violence, and destruction. He is told in the 
harangue from the wagon, and he believes the demagogue's hypo- 
critical slang, that his class, because the most numerous are 
the most enlightened, and generous, and noble, — that they ought 
to make the laws, and rule the State ; nay that their will ought 
to be lavv ; as their judgment is absolute wisdom. The peor man 
who believes this, will believe any thing, and will act on his be- 
lief as a ready instrument of violence. Witness the peril of the 
merely accused, but yet untried and unconvicted, who chance 
to fall into his hands, and a single hint in the street will raise the 
mob against an innocent person ; witness, too, the eager destruc- 
tion of machinery and property, and the mad burning of food. 
Can we forget, moreover, the fury and violence with which be- 
nevolently offered medical aid in the cholera was repelled, under 
the impression that " the doctors' 1 induced the disease to obtain 
subjects for dissection, and went the length of poisoning the wa 
ter ! 

In nothing is the manual labourer more profoundly uninform- 
ed, than as to his own position in the market of labour, and the 
due relation of labour and capital. He is readily seduced to join 
combinations to extort larger wages and shorter hours, both of 
which misapplied, as in his present condition intellectual and 
moral they would be, to the purposes of idleness and sensuality, 
would only render his condition worse ; and too often he is not 
slow to aid the physical force of such short sighted unions, in 
intimidating and even assaulting, and, it has happened, maiming, 
nay murdering, other labourers who prefer giving their work to 
any employer, and at any value they think fit, to joining in the 
" strike." By this attempt to force a larger share of capital 
than without force would come to him, the workmen succeeds 
in nething but driving it away from the place, or out of the coun- 



SI STRANGERS TO INTELLECTUAL PLEASURES. 

try, and by his own acts puts even the wages he quarrelled with 
out of his reach. Education alone will make it clear to him, 
that it is in vain for the labourers to expect, in a market where 
their numbers exceed the demand, to succeed ultimately in the 
objects of a strike. Strike they must, in another sense, in the 
conflict, and then they will find that they have reduced the 
amount of the capital which alone can employ and maintain them, 
and that fewer hands can be engaged at the same wages, or else 
lower wages than those that induced the stop, must be taken 
by the same number.* 

The pleasures of intellectual recreation and taste are necessa- 
rily unknown to nearly the whole of the manual-labour class. 
In vain for them has the All-wise given to the intellectual facul- 
ties to reap the highest enjoyment from their own exercise; in 
vain for them has he connected exquisite delight with the con- 
templation of his boundless works and wonderful ways, of the 
transcendant beauty and sublimity of creation, and the harmo- 
nious relations of its infinitely varied parts, all tending to effect 
benevolent ends to sentient beings. The whole Book of Nature 
is seated, — aye in this enlightened country — sealed to the nu- 
merous sons and daughters of manual labour ! I am well aware 
of the benevolent exertions made to dispel the intellectual dark- 
ness by such institutions as the Society for the Diffusion of Use- 
ful Knowledge, by means of the cheapest periodical ever pub- 
lished, and by private undertakings, such as Chamber's Edin- 
burgh Journal, and information for the People. Yet I fear it 
will appear in the sequel, that these admirable repositories of 
knowledge, of taste, and of virtue, are to an immense extent lost 
upon the mass of ignorance and grossness to which they are di- 
! rected ; and that, as shall likewise afterwards be shown to be 
true of religion itself, knowledge like that conveyed in the Penny 
Magazine and Chambers's periodicals, requires early elementary 
training both intellectual and moral, for its beneficial reception. 

3. The Moral condition of a large proportion of the manual- 
labour class is as low, at least, as the intellectual. I formerly 
quoted Mr. Wade's description of the moral condition of the 
manufacturing population of Manchester. But much short of 
this extreme is a low moral, in the more enlarged sense of that 
term ; and this, I fear, characterises a much wider range of the 
manual-labour class of the people. " Left to themselves," with- 
out an attempt made to restrain or regulate in infancy their 
animal propensities, or to call forth, cultivate, and exercise their 

* Miss Martineau has demonstrated this economical result, with her 
usual felicity, in the " Manchester Strike,''— No. VII. of those truly 
wonderful productions of truth, feeling, and fancy, "Illustrations of Po- 
litical Economy," known to the universal reading public, and marvelled 
at, as the work of a female pen. 



MORAL CONDITION' — SUSPICIONS — ENVYINGS. 25 

moral sentiments, their faculties are prone to work as mere in- 
stincts, not greatly more under the guidance of reason than those 
of the infeiior animals. It depends entirely upon his degree of 
natural endowment, whether each individual manifests more or 
less animal feeling, more or less selfishness, more or less civility, 
kindness, or integrity. Without cultivation the animalism may 
be expected to preponderate, whence the desires will be selfish, 
and the manners coarse and violent. Hence the suspicions, 
jealousies, and envyings of multitudes in that class, and, what 
when compared with their merits often surprises us, their vanity 
and self-sufficiency ; hence also their tendency to act under the 
impulse of their feelings, and the obstacles they themselves op- 
pose to all benevolent attempts to do them good. These they 
often repel, as covert evil intentions for a sinister end. Selfish-^ 
ness is suspicious, and it is notorious that charitable institutions; 
and benevolent schemes are too often looked upon with distrust I 
by those for whose benefit they are intended. Some have at-* 
tributed the malicious destruction of ornament and elegant deco- 
ration, when exposed to persons of this class, to an envious ha- 
tred^of these marks of a refined enjoyment denied to themselves. 
I am rather disposed to think that an animal tendency to deface and 
destroy, which we observe in the youngest children, and which 
no pains has been taken to suppress or regulate by education, is 
sufficient to account for this unamiable trait of character in the 
humbler ranks of our countrymen. They are certainly not yet 
fit for free admission into parks, gardens, and museums ; and 
these, if they have been opened to them, by way of experiment, 
have been speedily shut against their reckless destruction, and 
often disgusting abuse of the privilege. Infant-school trained 
children,^ is well known, may be trusted in the saloons of a 
palace, or amidst the temptations of a flower or fruit garden. 
The same training is the best preventive Of cruelty to animals, a 
vice prevalent among the working classes, beginning with un- 
checked insect-torturing and rat and cat killing, and increased in 
their after years by cruel sports, boxing matches, and'public exe- 
cutions to the length, in many cases, of dangerous ferocity. 

The home of the manual labourer is often an uncomfortable 
one. I make exceptions here, and I trust they are numerous, as 
I have done under the heads of physical comfort and intellectual 
improvement ; but I feel safe in speaking of a large portion who 
are below the moral rank of a peaceful and comfortable home. 
Of scanty supplier it is to be expected that much self-preference 
will be manifested in the partition ; if the man frequents the pot- 
house, and drinks ardent spirits, his selfishness is always greatly 
aggravated, and fierce and often dangerous brutality L is super- 
added. The habitually excited lower feelings debase the whole- 
family. The wife, from ill-usage, often in spite of her best ex- 
3 



20 UNCOMFORTABLE HOME— CRIMINALS— A HAPPY SOME. 

ertions, becomes as violent as her husband— if she has not, bf 
^er own improvidence and recklessness, to answer for his faults* 
The children, capriciously treated,- are often wayward and ob- 
stinate, and the family circle exhibits a scene of strife, brawling, 
and violence. If our domestic servants often come from such 
homes, can we wonder at their proneness to manifest feelings 
which annoy us, oppose our wishes, and interfere with our com- 
forts'? I wish I could say that a low cunning does not prevail 
to a great extent among the manual-labourers ; and that even 
the simple peasantrv, as they are called, have not their share ot 
this character ; advantage-taking, in other words, fraud, is often 
boasted of, as a proof of address and talent ; straitened circum- 
stances induce grasping habits, when nice moral distinctions 
vanish, and the transition to crime is too easy. It follows that 
this class, not more from their numbers than the miserable habits 
of many of them, furnish, in a great proportion, what is called 
the criminal population. This last unhappy class of beings have 
all the worst habits we have described, and others yet more 
deeply immoral and dangerous to the community. That de- 
plorable kind of human intercourse, by which the criminal cor- 
rupt and confirm each other, and seduce especially the young 
from honest labour to criminal courses, is described at length in 
the treatise on criminal legislation in the appendix, No. I. which 
will appear to the reader, in many particulars, to form an im- 
portant and necessary sequel to the subject now before us. 

There are who are blessed with a well-regulated home, whose 
members are accustomed, in the family intercourse, to control 
the unsocial and selfish feelings, and to exercise towards each 
other all the kindness and gentleness of the moral sentiments ; 
where each brings his or her share of knowledge, reflective 
sense, refinement, and elegance, to the common stock of domes- 
tic enjoyment ; and, contemplating in the luxury of such exalted 
intercourse, the temporal reward of the right use of the faculties 
which God hath bestowed, and a foretaste of the exaltation of 
these faculties in eternal bliss, keep Him steadily before their 
eyes, in a sustained consciousness of gratitude and love. Such 
have forced upon their view a more striking contrast yet be- 
tween the lot of the manual-labour class and their own than the 
greatest possible difference in the physical accommodations of 
life can suggest. Nor are the elements of this contrast confined 
to the working classes. The rich in moral feeling may draw 
the same contrast between their own social condition and that of 
a large proportion of the imperfectly educated, whose physical 
condition is much above that of manual-labour. But when mo- 
ral, intellectual, and physical privations combine to aggravate 
each other, a point of human degradation is reached, lower than 
which man can scarcely fall, and which calls aloud on every 



TNCESSANT LABOUR — UNHEALTHY TOIL — POOR LAWS. $ft 

friend of his species to do what in him lies to raise his fellow 
men out of the mire in which they lie, and place them in the road 
which will bring them to a right use of their faculties, and its 
consequences in physical, intellectual, moral, and religious im- 
provement. 

The condition of the manual-labour class is unfavourably 
affected by several causes, partly extraneous to the fundamental 
source of their sufferings, their ignorance. One of these will be 
found in the incessant demand for their labour, to accumulate 
the gains of their employers, which has immemorially devoted 
three fourths of the workman's waking hours to toil. Another 
is evident in the number of unwholesome occupations on which 
•that toil is bestowed. Much light has been thrown, as already 
observed, on this last evil, in its various forms of vitiated air, 
deleterious materials, posture of body, exposure to sudden 
changes of temperature, and likewise on the preventives and 
remedies of the manifold evils thence arising, by Mr. Thackrah, 
chiefly in relation to the manufacturing population of Leeds. But 
it is not likely that these preventives and cures of the effects of 
unwholesome toil, will have the full efficiency intended by their 
benevolent proposer, or the season of labour itself be judiciously 
and beneficially abridged, without the aid of the workmen them- 
selves, when more moral and enlightened than they yet are. 
Prolonged toil and unwholesome labour are, no doubt, in one 
sense, imposed upon the working class ; but were they more en- 
lightened, they themselves will abridge the one, and counteract 
the other ; the first by their own economy, moderation, and re. 
source, and the second by the appliance of much qualifying self- 
protection. I shall have an opportunity of returning to this 
subject. 

But perhaps the most gigantic evil, acting in co-operation with 
the ignorance of the working classes, is one which afflicts our 
southern neighbours of England more than ourselves ; and that 
is, the abuse of the Poor Laws, especially that unspeakable social 
gangrene the Allowance System, as it is called. By this, defi- 
cient wages are made up by alms, and a bounty offered for idle- 
ness, improvidence, and abandonment. The overwhelming con- 
sequences, which every economist predicted, have resulted in 
even a more blasting operation upon the whole condition and 
character of the working-class who have the misfortune of being 
within their influence, than was foreseen. The report of the 
Royal Commission of inquiry into the administration and opera- 
tion of the Poor Laws, it is moral sickness to peruse. From the 
great mass of matter a volume of extracts, embracing its most 
important information, has been published under the authority of 
Government. It is a shocking detail. The miserable public 
economy of maintaining a great part of the population as partial 



28 ALLOWANCE SYSTEM — DEMORALIZATION. 

and often total sinecurists, in other words paupers, is tenfold- 
aggravated, when the allowance, as is notoriously true, is ex- 
torted by violence, threats of incendiarism, and actual fire-raising ; 
for many of the fires have been traced to it. The evidence is 
overwhelming of the destruction, by this system, of the "vera- 
city, industry, frugality, and domestic viitues of the labourer ;" 
of " the rapid increase of vice, and profligacy," — " the preva- 
lence of the opinion that destitution, however produced, consti- 
tutesaclaimto be supported by the community, and that depend- 
ence on the parish is preferable to independent labour/' — " the 
destruction of reciprocal feeling between parents and children," — 
" desertion of wives by their husbands," — " gross sensuality," — 
" improvident marriages, to the great increase of the evil of an 
over-stocked labour-market," — " crime as the result of pau- 
perism" — " increase of illegitimate children, the allowance for 
an illegitimate being greater than for a legitimate child, and 
illegitimate children being a great advantage to their mothers 
under the present laws." 

When such a moral pestilence as this spreads over a land, in 
addition to the desert already made by popular ignorance, the 
Creator's designs have been defied by his creatures, and they 
are suffering the penalty of their disobedience. The Poor Laws 
may be reformed, but it must be done with power ; an immense 
pauper population will cling to their abuses with convulsive per- 
tinacity; the only cure for the pauper spirit is popular education.* 

4. We feel it almost a mockery, after the foregoing exposi- 
tion, to ask what religion's progress is in the manual-labour 
class. It is the constant complaint of the teachers of religion, 
that its principles scarcely mingle in the thoughts, much less 
influence the actions, of the great body of this class. f I have 
always thought it a mistake to impute this to their want of the 
means of attendance on public worship ; in their present state, 
intellectual and moral, if the doors of churches were thrown 
open to them freely, they would not, in any considerable num- 
bers, enter them. The great majority want the impulse; that 
impulse is another word for the activity of the superior human 
faculties; but the inferior, < almost exclusively, move the manual- 
labour class. Religion is not addressed to these ; it calls upon 
the intellect and moral sentiments to control these, as the law 



* It is satisfactory to find, that this very conclusion with regard to 
education's come to by the Commissioners. I have seen their sug- 
gestions since the above was in type. 

t Dr. Chalmers, in his speech in the Presbytery of Edinburgh on 23d 
January 1834, repeatedly deplored the ""practical heathenism" in which 
thousands of the population of Edinburgh live. He had even recourse 
to the strong figure, that it is necessary "*o excavate the population, 
firmly imbedded in a mass of practical heathenism". 



RELIGION OP MANUAL-LABOUR CLASS. 29 

la the members which wars against it. A weekly discourse is as 
the passing wind in the ears of the habitually greedy, the envious, 
the sensual, the tyrannical, the revengeful, the utterly selfish : 
a stated preceptive lesson to love God, and his neighbour as him- 
self, is unheeded by the man whose whole soul is drawn by a 
power, which he was never taught practically to resist, in the 
opposite direction. When Sunday comes* he has the choice of 
listening to a repetition of this to him unwelcome precept, for the 
thousandth time, of hearing perhaps a purely doctrinal discourse 
on what have been miscalled the mysteries of a religion " re- 
vealed unto babes," or of enjoying a day of indolence, amuse- 
ment, or sensuality, or all three. He would not be an unedu- 
cated, uninstructed, demoralized man, if he hesitated. In the 
towns, a very small proportion of the class in question attend 
public worship.* In the country parishes, especially in Scotland, 
a considerable portion of this class habitually appear in church. 
The parish minister knows each individual, and possesses over 
him a prescriptive pastoral influence ; he is known, moreover, to 
all his fellow parishioners ; he is a sla\e to what in Scotland is 
called " the fear of the folk," and dreads the loss of character 
with which irregular performance of ostensible religious duties 
is followed.! But the church-going of a person so influenced is 
his whole religion ; it has a set day, and is then suspended till 
that day week. Of natural religion, as inferred from the glo- 
rious manifestations of God in physical and moral creation, he has 
not an idea ; some religious teachers even forbid him this ground ; 
and his Christianity is a set of abstract notions, without the 
semblance of practical direction. Unqualified selfishness re- 
sumes its reign in his heart, if it was ever suspended, and an in- 
fluence the antipodes of Christianity masters him, and continues 
to impel his thoughts, words, and actions.^ When we speak of 
a class, we are bound to make allowance for exceptions, and 
now, as I have done before, I cheerfully make it. But that I 

* The opinion in the text was written before the report was pub- 
lished which contains the confirmative fact, that in the churches of 
Edinburgh the low-rented sittings for the working classes are in by- 
far the largest proportions untenanted. • 

t An Englishman lately witnessed in Scotland an instance of this"] 
metus populi, this religio loci. A native friend, with whom he was- 
walking, fled from his side without uttering a word, and took up a safe 
position behind a hedge,—" the folk" were coming out of the parish- 
church, and although the fugitive must have known that half of them j 
had been sleeping in it, he could not meet them ! 

X This is especially true, when the uneducated man's pastor is of a 
sect that ranks doctrines so far above Christian morality, as nearly to 
shut out the latter from his pulpit. This has been too much the case 
with nearly all Protestant sects ; their creeds scarcely allude to the 
moral precepts of the Gospel ; some of them seem even to exclude 
them. 

3* 



30 EDUCATIONAL PREPaRATIONo- 

have rightly described the character of the religion of a large- 
portion of his "parishioners, will not only not be denied by any 
parish minister, but is bewailed by all, every day of their lives. 
Yet, for none of our wants is so much provision made as for our 
religious. There is error somewhere. Far indeed is it from 
my thoughts to impute blame to the excellent men who are 
labouring to " excavate the people from the mass of heathenism 
in which they are so firmly imbedded." They have no power 
over an erroneous system, and one not of their own creating. 
But the application of their part of the process is premature. It 
is as if the metallurgist were to attempt to melt the gold before 
it is worked out of the vein ; education is the only excavating 
process ; preaching, in its utmost conceivable perfection, is a 
defective engine for the purpose, purely doctrinal preaching is 
utterly impotent. 

If education shall elevate, as it will be shown that education 
alone can, the intellectual and moral, and, by necessa^ con- 
sequence, improve the physical, condition of man, education is 
the human means which must greatly aid in preparing him to 
receive religious impressions in their genuine spirit, and to apply 
them to their intended practical ends. Before the sower went 
forth to sow, the soil was prepared. . This previous preparation 
is so plainly pointed out in the parable, that it is surprising that 
any one can lose sight of it. He was on his way to prepared 
ground, when some seed fell by the uncultivated wayside. He 
did not expect to prepare the soil by the act of sowing the seed, 
else the seed would have taken root by its own virtue on the 
bare wayside, and risen and ripened even among the thorns. I 
shall have occasion to return to the important subject of a legi- 
timate use of human means; these are, intruth, God's means; for 
they are the working of the faculties which He hath bestowed 
that they may be employed, and as such must be perfectly recon- 
cileable with a rational and scriptural view of spiritual influences, 
which some sincere but over excited Christians regard as direct 
miracles! Alas;! that their effects should be so little visible, and 
so limited ! What the desiderated educational preparation shall 
be which will aid in furnishing the impulses to Christianity, not 
only for Sunday, but for every day of the week, will appear when 
I come to treat of Infant Education. 

The reader is requested to view in retrospect, the sufferino-s 
of the.manual-labour class of our country, arising mainly, if not 
entirely, from their own ignorance ; and then survey the extent 
and nature of the provision made for their education, and he will 
cease to wonder. The great majority receive no education at 
ail. I he education of the class is certainly extending in Eng- 
land, and the parochial schools of Scotland are two centuries 
ola* But we come to the question, what is the nature of the 



Reading, writing, ciphering. 3r 

education of the humbler classes which is extending in England, 
and has been so long established in Scotland ? Is it of a kind 
to impart useful practical knowledge for resource in life — does 
it communicate to the pupil any light upon the important subject. 
of his own nature and place in creation, — on the conditions of 
his physical welfare, and his intellectual and moral happiness ;— - 
does it, above all, make an attempt to regulate his passions, and 
train and exercise his moral feelings, to prevent his prejudices, 
suspicions, envying, self-conceit, vanity, impracticability, de- 
structiveness, cruelty, aud sensuality 1 Alas! No. It teaches 
him to read, write, and cipher, and leaves him to pick up all 
the rest as he may ! Tt forms an instructive example of the 
sedative effect of established habits of thinking, that our ances-. 
tors and ourselves have so contentedly held this to be education,, 
or the shadow of it, for any rank of society ! Reading,. writing,, 
and ciphering, are mere instruments ; when attained, as they 
rarely or never .are, after all, by the working class to a reason- 
able perfection, they leave the pupil exactly in the situation 
where he would find himself, were we to put tools into his hands, 
the use of which, however, he must learn as he may. We know 
w r ell that he will be much-more prone to misapply his tools, and 
to cut himself with them, than to use them aright. So it is with. 
his reading ; for really any writing and accounting of this class, 
even the most respectable of them, scarcely deserve the name, 
and may be here put out of the account. Reading consists in 
the recognition of printed characters arranged into syllables and. 
words. With this most abstract accomplishment may coexist 
unregulated propensities, selfish passions, sensual appetites, filthy 
and intemperate habits, profound intellectual darkness and moral 
debasement, all adhering to a man as closely after as before he 
could read; and, be it marked, these qualities will give their 
bias to his future voluntary reading, and assuredly degrade and 
vitiate its character ; it will tend to strengthen his prejudices, 
deepen his superstitions, flatter his passions, and excite his ani- 
mal appetites. Well is all this known to the agitator, the quack, 
and the corruptor. They know that the manual-labourer can 
read: but they know, as well, that he is incapable of thinking, 
or detecting their impositions, if they only flatter his passions. 
No just views of life have ever been given him. no practical 
knowledge of his actual position in the social system. We are 
always told, that the majority of criminals cannot read, as if the 
mere faculty of reading would have diminished the number of 
criminals. This is a great delusion. For the reasons I have 
stated, mere reading might have increased the number of crimi- 
nals, it would be quite ineffective in diminishing them. But if 
the investigation had gone the length of ascertaining with which 
of the criminals had an attempt at moral training and useful 



32 SCOTTISH PARISH SCHOOLMASTERS. 

knowledge ever been made, we should have found that column 
of the table a blank, and something like cause and effect would 
begin to dawn upon us. It is needless to pursue so obvious a 
matter farther. If a national system of education is to stop at 
reading, writing, and ciphering, it would save much trouble and 
after disappointment not to attempt it at all. If I am reminded 
of the great improvements introduced by the Lancasterian Sys- 
tem, I answer, that I have not seen in the generality of such 
schools, any thing more than abridged methods — the monitorial 
chiefly — of teaching numbers to read, write and cipher* I am 
aware, too, of what is called the explanatory system, at the head 
of which stands pre-eminently Mr. Wood of Edinburgh, which 
puts books of useful knowledge into the pupil's hands, and exer- 
cises him upon their import, with much collateral information. 
But that System does not introduce him to realities, to external 
nature and its qualities, and the relation thereof to himself; it 
does not impart to him a knowledge of the condition of his weal 
and happiness, and his real position in life. It is, besides, almost 
exclusively intellectual, and, except in religious lessons, is not 
addressed to the moral faculties directly. If there be a school 
for the children of the working class, excepting always the 
Wilderspin Infant Schools, which systematically takes pains to 
educate the pupil of this rank of life against the evils which have 
been shown to arise from his ignorance, and to a deplorable ex- 
tent actually afflict him, I have not been so fortunate as to hear 
of it. In most schools, even the parochial, which by incogitate 
habit we call "the pride and glory of Scotland," some sprink- 
ling of the explanatory system has been introduced ; twenty 
years ago, no attempt was made to explain any thing; but in 
none — certainly in none, is there any provision for the kind of 
education which is to make the working man wiser and better, 
in the manner I have attempted to describe. A new and better 
system will make a great change on " the pride and glory of 
Scotland," and, in that change, conferring a rather -better claim 
to that title upon its parochial seminaries, greatly elevate the 
rank and endowments of their teachers. I know these to be in 
general excellent persons, much- accustomed to be praised and 
starved by the Scottish public. I know some of them who are 
learned men, according to the usual acceptation of the word, that 
is, thorough Greek and Latin scholars ; others are mathemati- 
cians, and mechanical philosophers, and all are theologians; but 
they might as well be Brahmins for any good their manual- labour 

* Mr. Dun, of the Edinburgh Davie-street School, decidedly the best 
Lancasterian teacher I have yet met with, has introduced much useful 
knowledge into his plan : and, if the means were afforded him, would 
yet do much more. 



PREJUDICES. 33: 

pupils reap from such extra accomplishments, beyond reading, 
writing, and ciphering. 

The reader is requested now to estimate the value of an 
opinion, so common as almost to have grown into a set formula, 
which we are quite certain of hearing given forth, by several 
ladies and gentlemen at once, in every company where the edu- 
cation of the manual-labour class is mentioned. " I am no friend 
to over-educating the working classes,— education is running 
greatly too fast, — teach them to read and write, all beyond is 
above their condition, and only serves to make them discontent-. 
ed with it." This current twaddle comes of the imperfection 
of the education of those who echo it; an imperfection that has 
other bitter fruits, to be noticed in the next chapter; the only 
excuse for it, is the ignorance of these opinionists of the length, 
and breadth, and height, and depth, of the social error which, 
they espouse and circulate. 



34 



CHAPTER II. 



ON THE EFFECTS OF IMPERFECT EDUCATION ON THE CONDITION OF 
THE CLASS OF THE PEOPLE ABOVE MANUAL-LABOUR. 



The term " Educated class," relative— Our vast attainments in Physical 
Science— Confusion and error in Moral world— Controversy and 
party divisions — Contrast of sound legislation — General selfishness 
—Demands of Christianity— Religion of the "Educated"— Large 
provision for it— Want of educational preparation— Fanaticism and 
insanity — Certain social defects remnants of barbarism, national 
jealousies, offensive wars, criminal code, &c. — Barbarous customs, 
fox-hunting, engrossing rural sports, &c— Happiness not attained, 
reasons— False views of life— Young men of fortune— Waste of life, 
wealth, and happiness by the affluent — Their marriages — Sedentary 
study— Instructive illustrations on this head— Incogitate pursuit of 
wealth— Over-trading, glutted markets— Unwelcome inquiry— Good 
admitted — Causes of our social evils — No moral training in educa- 
tion—Milton, Locke, Kames— Reading— Dead languages— False 
morality of classics— Barbarism of the ancients — Scientific studies 
— Science of Man, physiological, mental and moral, a blank in Edu- 
cation. 



The term " educated class," as applied to the portion of our 
countryman who are above manual labour, will scarcely be ta- 
ken by any one to mean that they enjoy the means of education 
perfect, or nearly perfect. The term is relative, and certainly, 
when compared with the manual-labour class, who have no edu- 
cation at all worthy the name, we are an educated class. But 
no error is more profound, or more prevalent, than the persua- 
sion that we are an educated class in the best sense of the term. 
Our complacent conclusions oa the subject are, however, ex- 
ceedingly natural. Look, it is said, at our libraries, our ency- 
clopedias, teeming, as they do, with knowledge in every branch 
of science and literature. See our ehemical, mathematical, me- 
chanical powers, with all their realized results, which seem to 
mould material nature to our will and render life proudly luxu- 
rious. Then turn to our classical literature, our belles-lettres, 
our poetry, our eloquence, our polished intercourse, our refined 
society ; consider our fine arts and elegancies ; and, above all, 



CONTROVERSY — PARTIES IMPROVED LEGISLATION. 35 

think of our legislation, our political economy, our institutions 
of benevolence and justice, and the gigantic combinations of our 
entire national system. There is much in these high-sounding 
claims that deceive us* We are prone to borrow from the large 
fund of credit we possess in the exact and physical sciences, to 
place the loan to the account of universal intellectual and moral 
attainment, and to conclude that a pitch of improvement, which 
enables us to travel thirty miles an hour, must comprise in it 
every thing else of knowledge and power. But alas ! when 
we look beyond the range of physical tangibilities, and, it may * 
be, elegant literature, into the region of mental and moral rela- 
tions, in short the science of man, upon which depend the wis- 
dom of our legislation, and the soundness of our institutions and 
customs, what a scene of uncertainty do we see ! Fixed princi- 
ples in social affairs have not yet been attained. Scarcely 
shall we meet two individuals who are guided by the same code. 
Hence controversy is the business of the moral, and assuredly, 
we may add, of the religious world. If any measure affecting 
the public is propounded, there arises a perfect hurricane of op- 
position and denunciation, as if it were the most monstrous of 
errors, and the most atrocious of crimes. No plan or project, re- 
ligious, civil, economic, or merely ornamental, can be proposed, 
,'ithout tearing to pieces the conventions of courtesy, nay, the 
feelings of common charity, and exposing a lamentable scene*of 
inconsistency and passion. We find sects of men combining to 
attain by their union certain proposed ends, and these seem to 
be guided by principles which they all acknowledge ; for there 
is no want of party array, and skilful party tactics; but when 
we find that the spirit of party is violence and hatred, we must 
search the humbler region of selfishness for the bond of their 
union, for we cannot recognise among them any thing which is 
entitled to be called profound philosophical, or high moral, prin- 
ciple. Nothing more exposes the low state of our present 
moral attainments than the endless disputes and hatreds, which 
are the sum and substance of what are called our politics. If 
the time shall ever arrive, when legislation shall be brief and 
practical, founded in benevolence and justice, purified of vain 
personal display, freed from selfishness, party spirit, pride of 
caste, and sacrifice to particular interests, — either of an exclu- 
sive aristocracy on the one extreme, or a reckless, impatient, and 
often most aristocratic democracy on the other, — when it shall 
cease to be fettered by a constituency less enlightened than 
representatives animated by a single hearted love to their coun- 
try and their species, when it shall become an easier task, be- 
cause abuses will be already removed, and laws will come to be 
less retrospective remedies than onward meliorations, moving 
abreast with human improvement, what will be thought of the 



36 SELFISHNESS — FASHION CONTUMELY. 

political dissensions which at present degrade and retard public 
affairs ! Of the game of parties, with all its frauds and hypocri- 
sies, — the irreconcileable varieties of opinion, — the diversity of 
views, — the fierceness of divisions ! A wide-spread selfishness 
alone accounts for this spectacle; and who can deny that a 
systematic selfishness, regulated by law and conventional ex- 
pediency, is the impelling power,— -at once the bond which unites, 
and the divellent influence which tears asunder, the centripetal 
and centrifugal forces which preserve yet disturb the circum- 
scribed orbit of our social relations. To engross as much wealth, 
gain as much of what is miscalled distinction, and outstrip our 
neighbour, is the business of life. We have, too, our cold 
hearted fashion, which denies those without its frivolous pale 
well-nigh a common nature ; and we have all the successive ex- 
clusions and repellants descending in society, and freezing up 
the sources of good-will and brotherly love, which should flow 
downward to soften and fertilize the humblest regions of the com 1 - 
munity, and unite the whole in mutual good-will and contented 
co-operation. It is this habitual contumely ^ which separates 
the great body of the manual-labour class from all who merely 
enjoy more physical comfort and ease of life, in a scowling at- 
titude of distrust, envy, and hostility. Talk to us of a more 
liberal basis of social being, of a higher morality, a more wide 
spreading philanthropy, nay of a mitigation of selfishnsss, a 
moderation of wealth engrossing, a transference of our worship 
from artificial badges to real intellectual and moral merit, a 
kindlier feeling to our universal fellow men, and we meet you 
with mockery, as we point to what we call " human nature," 
and return to our money-getting and self-exaltation. Buonaparte 
was right, — we are a nation of shop-keepers. Nevertheless, 
when it is put to us in the abstract, we admit that Christianity 
demands all, and we are terribly scandalized when our Chris- 
tianity is doubted. Do we not attend church, and yield our 
assent to the precepts and doctrines there taught? Do we not 
prove our zeal by cordially hating all other religious sects, 
cum odio theologico ? Are we not the foremost and the loudest in 
shouting the approved watch-words of " irreligion," "infidelity," 
to raise the mob to put down all heresy and schism, — that is all 
opinions not our own? And are we not ready to shed our blood, 
if we refuse to mend our lives, for the Church, which has always 
formed an essential part of our politics, and been toasted by us 
in many an overflowing cup of conviviality. 

It can scarcely be averred, that any considerable portion of 
the church-going of the "educated class," have more practical 
week-day Christianity, than that which was predicated of the 
manual-labour class. If we should ask any of the first how 
much of what they listen to on Sunday influences their views 



RELIGIOUS STATE— MORAL DEFECTS — FANATICISM. 37 

and acts in life, they would be sorely puzzled to answer the 
question. Yet there are no institutions of public instruction, 
both as supported by state establishments, and by" the zeal of 
private associations, more largely endowed than the ecclesiasti- 
cal, no part of our well-being more cared for. What is the 
cause of so small a harvest, from so immense a cultivation ? 
Why does not the seed so plentifully sown fructify and produce ; 
There is but one answer to this question, we are not a mo- 
rally educated people. There is a barrenness of soil among 
us, where genuine Christianity refuses to take root ; there is a 
worse, there are the thorns of an inherent selfishness, which, 
choke it ; tares pre-occupy the whole field, and the husbandmen 
sow in vain. As was predicated of their efforts to excavate the 
lower classes from the heathenism in which they are imbedded, 
our religious guides address themselves to unprepared minds 
much higher up in the social scale. Yet if a stranger to the 
actual religious condition of the " educated" were to hear our 
talk on the subject, he might mistake us for a religious people ; 
if he contemplated our animosity, division, and violence in the 
matter, although he might miss the spirit of Christianity, he 
could not fail to be struck with our zeal each for his own dogmas, 
and for their substitution, by the force of indirect persecution, 
for all others ; dogmas, too often adopted yesterday for others 
as dogmatically maintained the day before, — 

" As if religion were intended 
For nothing else but to be mended." - . 

Nay, he would see religious feeling running into the most extra- 
vagant credulity and fanaticism among us ; and if he did not 
know that that melancholy extreme is capable of a physiologi- 
cal explanation, as an actual disease of the brain, which sees vi- 
sions, hears voices, and dreams dreams, he might conclude that 
we are an ouer-religious generation. But the indifference and 
the enthusiasm have alike their origin in an imperfect, education, 
in unprepared uncultivated feelings, which, according to the pre- 
disposition and temperament, are either roused to excess by the 
mere sympathy — the hysteria of a diseased enthusiasm, or are 
not stirred at all. 

A catalogue of our social defects, all referable to the educa- 
tion wherewith we are mocked, might be expatiated upon to' the 
extent of a volume ; the remnants these, of barbarism which 
still clings to us and our institutions, customs, habits, and man- 
ners. I will venture to enumerate a few of these. We direct 
yeV for example, an evil eye to our fellow-men in other commu- 
nities, and speak of our " natural enemies !" We are disgraced 
by national jealousies, national antipathies, commercial restric- 

4 



38 SOGlAf SELECT S^-BARBAROUS CUSTOMS* 

tions, and often offensive war. We have our game laws and cri> 
minal code also to account for. Broughtto the standard of sound 
ethics and reason, there are many of our customs that have as 
little chance as these of escaping the reproach of barbarisms 
which an educated people would disown, cruel rural sports, for 
example 5 fox-hunting, horse-racing, betting, gambling, prize- 
fighting, duelling, and excessive conviviality. The character 
and engrossing claims of rural sports, as they are called, will 
astonish a future better educated age.* Such an age will 
scarcely believe " the butcher work that then befell" the un- 
sparing slaughter of all that is furred and feathered and finned, 
in field and flood, " on mountain, moss, and moor'; 1 ' they will 
discredit the graft of the hunting stage of the race upon a civili- 
zation, at its lowest, immensely in advance of that stage ; they 
will reject the story that the boast of the Iroquois and the Es- 
quimaux was also the distinction of the most polished ornaments 
of our drawing-rooms, namely the havoc of their unerring aim, 
the life they have extinguished, the blood they have shed, the 
" head of game" they have gloried over as trophies spread out 
dead before them, and the larders which they have outdone the 
butcher in stocking ! All is not right in our habits of thinking, 
■ — in other words in our education, — when our " elite" can 
claim, and multitudes can accord, a certain distinction to a "capi- 
tal shot," the victor in what the Olympics knew not, — " a stee- 
ple chace," or the proprietor of a pony which can trot sixteen 
miles an hour. 

I know the-ready answer to such strictures on rural sports? 
and that answer implies the very educational vacuum which there 
is so much reason to deplore. It is of great importance, it is 
said, to our rural population, that the aristocracy shall pass a 
reasonable portion of their time in the country. They are the 
spoiled children of excitement, and if you withhold that in the 
country, they will seek it in the capital, in pursuits and pleasures 
infinitely more debasing and more ruinous to health and fortune. 
Look at Paris. Is an educated aristocracy here spoken of? Is 
it indeed so, that in the alternative of their urban or rural ex- 
citement the objects are so low ? Is it indeed so, that without 
the slaughter of its innocent animals, which spread a living poet- 
ry over its fields, our " better classes" find no attractions in 
the country, no delight in " the green fields of England in the 
merry month of May," no luxury in the roses of June, the pride 
of July, the mellowness of autumn ; that they indeed — 

* I say engrossing claims, for I grant that killing game is as legiti- 
mate as killing mutton, and do not quarrel with a subordinate and mo- 
derate resort to the field by those whose main avocations are more use- 
iul and dignified. It is healthful exercise ; I cannot concede to it a 
higher merit. 



IGNORANCE OF NATURE'S LAWS. 39 

" Renounce the bdundless store ' 
Of charms which Nature to her votary yields, 
"The warbling woodland, the resounding shore, 
The pomp of groves, and garniture of fields, 
All that the genial ray of morning gilds, 
And all that echoes to the song of even, 
All that the mountain's sheltering bosom shields, 
And all the dread magnificence of heaven." 

Can we have a more rousing proof than this of a defective, 
nay a perverted education ? I say perverted, for the barbarism 
is actually inculcated ; the vacuum is filled, by precept and 
example, with images of rural slaughter ; the young idea is 
taught to shoot most carefully, and the tender thought assidu- 
ously reared, which longs for manhood and bloodshed. The 
spirit of severity, and even cruelty and blood, of our criminal 
code, has with no small reason been imputed, in some respects, 
to this remnant of the hunting stage of society. 

The evils suffered by society from ignorance of the human 
faculties and their right application, will be more obvious, 
when we inquire what the faculties and their relations are ; it 
may suffice at present to say, that happiness is rarely if ever 
attained, and that the preponderance of selfish feelings which 
are incapable of rational satisfaction, verifies the truth that 
11 a^ is vanity and vexation of spirit." Ignorance of physical 
and organic conditions of health produces disease, while it 
transmits the consequences in weakened constitutions to off- 
spring. The selfish desire of wealth brings together in matri- 
monial alliance the predisposed to disease and insanity, and bit- 
ter domestic suffering is the consequence. The s^niS iksilw G» 
wealth, added toambition to rise above others, regulates or rather 
deranges the whole system of life, and there is not one ray of 
light but disregarded Christianity, to guide in a direction more 
consistent with real happiness. This is ignorance of the moral 
conditions of human weal. An enlightened friend of the au- 
thor's once asked an excellent young man about to embark for 
India, what views he entertained of life, and the objects of his 
own existence 1 The question was new to him. He had been 
" well educated," in the common acceptation of the words, but 
he had never conceived that life had any higher aim than to ac- 
quire a fortune, marry, rear a family, live in a fine house, drink 
expensive wines, die, and go to heaven ! There was no provi- 
sion in this for reaping enjoyment from the higher faculties of his 
nature ; he was not aware that these had any other function to 
perform than to regulate his conduct in the pursuit of the grati- 
fication of his inferior feelings. This is the condition of mind 
in which almost all young men of the upper and middle classes 
of society enter into active life ; and nothing can well be con- 



s 



40 FALSE VIEWS — PURSUITS OF MEff OF FORTUNE, 

ceived more disadvantageous to their success and happinessv 
Those who are what is called religiously educated, are not more 
fortunate ; because no sect in religion has yet addressed itself to 
the duty of teaching the nature of man, the value of pursuits 
in life, the institutions of society, and the relation of all these 
to the religious and moral faculties of man ; without understand- 
ing these, no person entering upon active life can see his way 
clearly, or entertain, consistent or elevated views of duty, and 
the true sources of happiness. 

This deficiency in knowledge is also remarkably exemplified 
in young men born to large fortunes, who have succeeded in mi- 
nority to their paternal estates, and, on attaining majority, are by 
law entitled to pursue their own happiness in their own way. 
It is quite lamentable to observe the humble, the debasing course 
they almost always adopt. Rational view3 of themselves, of hu- 
man nature, and of the institutions of society, would be invalua- 
ble to such individuals ; but they have no adequate means of 
obtaining them, while positively false views have been implant- 
ed in their minds by a perverted education. 1 grant the case to 
be an extreme one, of a young gentleman of, large fortune, not 
destitute of talents and good feeling, and regularly subjected to 
all the appliances of dead language education at school and col- 
lege, who, on the day of his majority, was declared a free man, 
with power to choose the most likely road to real happiness. 
What did he do 1 He established, of course, a stud of hunters, 
a pack of hounds, and a whole armory of fowling-pieces, — gal- 
loping and blazing and slaughtering being universally held in- 
separable from wealth and rank, in the present state of civiliza- 
Uo% Coach-driving, either of private four-in-hand vehicles or 
the public conveyances, is no longer sanctioned by general ap- 
probation, as suiting the age ; nevertheless our hopeful had a trial 
of coach-driving. From this he was diverted by matrimony, 
and postnuptially took to another gratification of his faculties of 
rather an original kind ; he placed cats upon a float in the mid- 
dle of a pond, and sent dogs to swim and attack them ! This 
last occupation would have been disdained by a young nobleman 
of immense possessions, who, at a feast in honour of his majority, 
manifested the best natural dispositions, by acknowledging that 
he had always been taught, and had always felt, that the great 
duty imposed upon him by his rank and fortune, was to do good. 
The declaration was sincere, and the character of the speaker 
such as to warrant the belief that he would act upon it, if his 
education had been such as to have shown him hojj to do so, or 
rather, as the previous point, what to do. To keep a pack of 
hounds, to be followed over fields and enclosures by the elite of 
the county, does not stand very high in the scale of good : to 
engage keenly in party politics is not good, for these are gene> 



HOW TO DO GOOD. 41 

?aily incompatible with the general weal : to dispense costly and 
luxurious hospitality indiscriminately, is to do wide-spreading 
mischief: to pursue or encourage idleness or frivolous occu- 
pations, is not good : to strengthen, by influence and example, 
the pride of rank and its correlative sycophancy, to uphold the 
heartless, icy, withering, barriers of fashion, and, by external 
pomp, circumstance, and equipage, to shut out the knowledge 
of, and sympathy with the general mass of society, cultivated 
and uncultivated, are all severally bad, and, although much the 
practice of our nobility, injurious, in a degree to which their edu- 
cation shuts their eyes, to themselves and to society. Educa- 
tion rendered what it ought to be, will point out "what is good," 
both in its temporal and spiritual sense, to the wealth-loaded fa- 
vourites of fortune. " To do good and to communicate," is emi- 
nently in their power, if they will first, "with all their gettings, 
get knowledge," and apply it to useful purposes ; if they will 
learn and value the acts and manifestations of high intellectual 
and moral endowments, more than physical comforts, sensual en- 
joyments, and external pomp; if they will seek the society of 
enlightened and benevolent men, whose intellects are replenish- 
ed with knowledge of the Creator's works and ways, whose 
hearts swell with wonder, adoration, and love, whose whole 
minds are instinct with sympathy with, and ardent desire for, hu- 
man happiness. With their aid they would know how to con- 
vert their wealth into a powerful engine of social benefit, and, 
from this the legitimate gratification of the higher faculties of 
their nature, they would enjoy as well as confer real good. 

The very proposition of such a course for a rich, splendid, ele- 
gant, " and spirited" young nobleman, would of course, at pre- 
sent, raise in himself and the whole table he presides at, a roar of 
incredulous and scornful laughter, the natural expression of the 
very barbarism so much to be deplored. But, with more enlight- 
ened views, it will come to be acknowledged that the waste of 
life, fortune, and happiness, by the affluent, which characterizes 
the present, as it has marked the past ages of the world, is ow- 
ing in no small degree, to ignorance of human nature, its wants 
and capacities — in other words, to imperfect education. 

A volume might be filled* with proofs of the suffering from 
ignorance which visits all classes, and none more than the high- 
er. The inactivity of the faculties of persons of fashion, is aper- 
fect tcedium vita. Their vacuity and dislike to mental exercise is 
constant ennui, and their indisposition to muscular exercise and 
fresh air, brings in its train a whole catalogue of ailments. Their 

* An admirable volume has been so 'filled—" The Constitution of 
Man in relation to External Objects"— by Mr. George Combe, of Edin- 
burgh, a work in its second edition in America, ana already translated 
into French, German, and Swedish. 

4* 



42 SEDENTARY STUDT^INSTRUCTIVE ILLUSTRATION. 

carriages " stop the way" to health, bloom, and beauty. Who 
has not pitied, when they were thought to envy, the pale-faced 
victim dragged to what is called an airing, in which lungs and 
limbs are alike unconcerned, and are both tending to a state of 
disease by impeded circulation and impaired digestion. Much of 
high life is an ignorant defiance of Nature's laws, and is visited 
with enfeebled functions, lassitude, uneasiness, anxiety, and a 
thousand, evils, arising from infringement of institutions, which 
when observed and obeyed, lead to delight and happiness. No 
considerations but rank and wealth determine matrimonial alli- 
ances, and these are often in consequence ill assorted. The en- 
feebiement and diseases of high life are by Nature's law trans- 
mitted to offspring, as surely as those of the reckless and disso- 
lute mechanic ; the powers of mind suffer deterioration from the 
influence of impaired nerves and brain ; the race itself degenerates, 
and imbecility and even insanity visit the palaces of the great, 
much more, in proportion to their numbers, than the hovels of 
the poor. 

It is lamentable to see ignorance of the conditions of health 
inducing the aspirant to college honours to impose upon himself 
more prolonged labour than that to which the manual-labourer is 
forced by want of bread, reckless that he loses health and life 
in the pursuit. In the biographies of early talent, when I have 
come to the usual passage, " when his companions played, he 
remained to read and study," I have looked on a few pages, and 
always found that he died early. No attempt is made in our de- 
fective education to inculcate and impress such knowledge up- 
on us ; and we find the most talented men acting in practical 
disregard of these conditions of health and longevity. I cannot 
withhold the following apposite and most instructive passage 
from Mr. Combe's work, already referred to, on the Constitu- 
tion of Man. " No idea can be more preposterous, than that of 
human beings having no time to study and obey, the natural in- 
stitutions. These laws punish so severely, when neglected, 
that they cause the offender to lose tenfold more time in under- 
going his chastisement, than would be requisite to obey them. 
A gentleman extensively engaged in business, whose nervous 
and digestive systems have been impaired by neglect of the or- 
ganic laws, was desired to walk in the open air at least one hour 
a-day ; to repose from all exertion, bodily and mental, for one 
full hour after breakfast, and another full hour after dinner, be- 
cause the brain cannot expand its energy in thinking and aiding 
digestion at the same time, and to practise moderation in diet ; 
which last he regularly observed ; but he laughed at the very 
idea of his having three hours a day to spare for attention to his 
health. The reply was, that the organic laws admit of no ex- 
ception, and that he must either obey them, or take the conse- 



INCOGITATE PURSUIT OF WEALTH. 43 

quences: but that the time lost by the punishment would be 
double or treble that requisite for obedience ; and accordingly 
the fact was so. instead of his attending an appointment, it is 
quite usual for him to send a note, perhaps at two in the after- 
noon, in these terms : — ' I was so distressed with headach last 
night, that I never closed my eyes, and to-day I am still incapa- 
ble of being out of bed.' On other occasions he is out of bed, 
but apologises for incapacity to attend to business, on account of 
an intolerable pain in the region of the stomach. In short, if the 
hours lost in these painful sufferings were added together, and 
distributed over the days when he is able for duty, he would find 
them far outnumber those which would suffice for obedience to 
the organic laws, and with this difference in the results ; by neg- 
lect he loses both his hours and his enjoyment ; whereas by obe- 
dience, he wouid ber e warded by aptitude for business, and a pleas- 
ing consciousness of existence." 

Perhaps the most wide-spreading mischief to society comes 
of the only other ignorance with which I shall detain the read- 
er, the ceaseless, indiscriminate, and incogitate pursuit of 
wealth. There are no limits to this object with most men, but 
the stern barriers of law. Merchants and manufacturers hasten 
to be rich beyond the course of nature : they engage in adven- 
tures for which they have neither capacity nor talents ; they enter 
into the most inconsiderate partnerships ; they lend and borrow 
and involve each other in the consequences of the rashest specu- 
lations; and they live in splendour far beyond their means. 

Machinery should reasonably abridge bodily toil, and leave 
leisure for intellectual and moral improvement, with its con- 
comitant enjoyment; but machinery has been used only to over- 
labour workmen and overstock markets; prices fall ruinously 
low; the labourers lately overworked are thrown idle, and left to 
starve or be supported on charity ; what are called " better" 
times return ; the glut is removed, work is abundant ; avarice 
again overdoes, and again the market is glutted, and the labour- 
ers again thrown into idleness, starvation, and misery. In 1825- 
6-7, these views were fearfully verified ; large bodies of work- 
men were supported on charity. For many miserable hours 
they were idle, w r hich hours, distributed over the time of their 
labour, would have afforded them sufficient daily subsistence. 
The Creator intended man to labour a reasonable portion of 
his time, but when man infringes this law by abuse, he defeats 
his own end ; he is thrown idle longer than all the time put to- 
gether which, in each day, would have given him salutary 
leisure. This has bee'n .written in broad characters, and should 
be remembered. It is a curious and instructive fact, that 
when these miscalled good times returned, and labour was in re- 
quest, workmen struck for higher wages, and for months some 



44 GLUTTED MARKETS— UNWELCOME INQUIfiY 

manufactories were from this cause stopped ; when the glut te- 
turned and its consequences, these masters were the most fortu- 
nate, for they had less on hand, and, blind themselves, had been 
taught by their blind workmen in quest of a different object, that 
the overtrading of their neighbours was a folly which they had, 
by no wisdom of their own, but by an accidental combination of 
circumstances, escaped. At the present moment, prosperity has 
returned : the seconder of the Address, in the House of Com- 
mons, the other night, went into a detail to show that all our 
manufactures were thriving and affording full employment. Let 
us not boast. Love of money, hurry to be rich, still afflict our 
imperfectly educated capitalists. Competition will urge them 
on in the race, another glut will stop them, their workmen will 
again be thrown idle, and much commercial distress will be the 
consequence. In nothing is education more wanted, than for 
the attainment of principles which shall put the race for wealth 
under rational practical regulation, that it may not defeat itself, 
and subject society to a constant alternation of mock prosperity 
and overwhelming misery. 

But w T e must proceed, from the evils which visit the class of 
society above manual labour, although they are by no means ex- 
hausted, to a short inquiry into their causes. Before doing so, 
however, it may be necessary to guard the picture I have drawn 
from the imputation of being overcharged, and on that ground 
rejected as altogether false. This objection is most likely to 
come from persons who live in comfortable circumstances, and 
a fair external good will towards the circle of their acquaintan- 
ces, the world to them, and among whom they know kind-heart- 
ed, decent, moral, religious, and even a few generous individuals ; 
who shrink from the disgusting task of examining the sores of 
society, or going deeper than a very satisfactorily varnished 
skin which covers them ; who feel in their own persons no in- 
convenience from alleged social evils, the degradation, physical 
and moral, of the working classes, and the humble attainments 
and practical errors o£ the middle and higher; and who even 
resent being disturbed by the tiresome people who are always 
croaking " that whatever is is wnrong," instead of enjoying the 
far more consolatory conviction, that whatever is is right. Readi- 
ly do I concede to the most contented of these objectors, that there 
is a large portion of genuine good, moral and religious, in socie- 
ty ; that this, with a much larger ingredient of conventional 
morality, and its result positive law, preserves the system from 
falling to pieces, which it would do in an hour were the picture 
I have drawn of the lower and higher classes of universal and 
unqualified application. The higher sentiments are at work in 
our legislation, and our social economy ; justice is extending its 
influence, and benevolence and charity are distinguishing the 



EVILS EXIST — NO MORAL TRAINING. 45 

age.* Bat while all this is granted, it is maintained that the 
positive evils which have been enumerated, do exist ; nay more, 
that they immensely preponderate, and we should deeply miscal- 
culate if we glossed over and spared them for the sake of the 
good wherewith they are mixed. When the question is an- 
swered, What is our Education ? all that has been said of our 
condition will be easily and naturally accounted for. 

1. There exist no adequate means, either in private families 
or public institutions, with the exception of Infant Schools, 
for educating the feelings, improving the dispositions, re- 
straining the inferior propensities, and exercising the higher 
sentiments, — in short, for moral training. In all this we 
took our chance, and picked up what we might from partial 
parents, nursery maids, and juvenile companions. The animal 
feelings being the strongest, acted in us with all the blindness 
and all the power of instincts, and laid a broad and deep founda- 
tion for habitual selfishness. There is no greater change, nay, 
revolution in education, than will arise out of the nascent want, — 
the incipient demand which is felt by the more enlightened part 
of society, for this education's paramount object. Multitudes do 
not yet know what it means, or laugh at it as a wild chimera, 
when they succeed in imperfectly taking in the idea. The re- 
fracted ray — the full light, is seen from the mountain before it 
shines upon the valley ; but it must shine as the day, and widely 
influence our institutions, before we shall merit the name of an 
educated people. As a proof of the slow progress of truths 
which nevertheless concern man in his most vital social interests, 
it is instructive to look back and find such truths announced to an 
age long past, by master minds that arose long before the gene- 
ration qualified to appreciate their genius, and profit by their 
wisdom. Milton and Locke both advocated moral training, 
they held it paramount to intellectual, and intellectual merely 
subservient to it. One hundred and fifty years have passed 
since they urged on the notice of their countrymen its superi- 
ority and necessity ; but no attempt was made "to act upon the 
principles they taught, till within the last fifteen years, when the 
first Infant School realized their bequest to their country, and 
commenced the era of moral education. I cannot withhold the 
solemn words of these great men. Impressed, as I am pro- 
foundly, with a conviction of their transcendent value, they are 

* The entire generation is apt to take credit for the institutions of 
charity. The subscription lists of these tell a different tale. It has 
been observed, that about 1500 known individuals, of the 150,000 of 
which Edinburgh is composed, support all the charitable establish;, 
ments in the place. The London proportion would be 15,000. It would 
be interesting to know how the fact §tands,~rcftan'<y balls and nrusjc?,! 
festivals, of course ? excluded: 



46' MILTON, LOCKE AND KAMEs's VIEWS. 

to me, as it were, " the voice of the spirits of the mighty dead.'* 
Milton's words are these, " The end of learning is to repair the 
ruin of our first parents, by regaining to know God aright, and 
out of that knowledge to love him, to imitate him, to be like 
him, as we may the nearest, by possessing our souls of true 
virtue, which being united to the Heavenly grace of faith, make 
up the highest perfection." — {Letter to Samuel Hartlib.) 

Locke says, " It is virtue, then, direct virtue, which is the 
hard and valuable part to be aimed at in education, and not a 
forward pertness, or any little arts of shifting. All other con- 
siderations and accomplishments should give way, and be post- 
poned to this. This is the solid and substantial good, which tu- 
tors should not only read lectures and talk of, but the labour and 
art of education should furnish the mind with, and fasten there, 
and never cease till the young man had a true relish of it, and 
placed his strength, his glory, and his pleasure in it." — Lockers 
Thoughts concerning Education, § 70. 

" Learning must be had, but, in the second place, as subser- 
vient only to greater qualities. Seek out somebody (as your 
son's tutor,) that may know how discreetly to form his manners: 
place him in hands where you may as much as possible secure 
his innocence, cherish and nurse up the good, and gently correct 
and weed out any bad inclinations, and settle him in good habits. 
This is the main point, and this being provided for, learning may 
be had into the bargain." — § 147. 

" But under whose care soever a child is put to be taught, 
during the tender and flexible years of his life, this is certain, it 
should be one who thinks Latin and language the least part of 
education i one who, knowing how much virtue and a well tem- 
pered soul is to be preferred to any sort of learning or language, 
makes it his chief business to form the mind of his scholars, and 
give that a right disposition ; which, if once got, though all the 
rest should be neglected, would, in due time, produce all the 
rest ; and which, if it be not got and settled so as to keep out ill 
and vicious habits, languages and sciences, and all the other ac- 
complishments of education, will be to no purpose but to make 
the worse or more dangerous man." — $ 177. 

Lord Kames anticipated his age more than half a century. 
In his Hints on Education, with profound truth to us, but mere 
sentimental writing to the generation he addressed, he says, " It 
appears unaccountable that our teachers generally, have directed 
their instructions to the head, with very little attention to the 
heart. From Aristotle, down to Locke, books without number 
have been composed for cultivating and improving the under- 
standing : few in proportion for cultivating and improving the 
affections. Yet surely, as man is intended to be more an active 
|han a contemplative being-, the educating of a young man to 



OUR FIRST SCHOOL — CLASSICAL EDUCATION, 47 

behave properly in society, is of still greater importance than 
the making him even a Solomon for knowledge." Society has 
suffered much, and suffers severely, for its ignorant neglect of 
these admonitions. The principle and the practice of moral 
training will be detailed in its proper place. 

Having, worse than lost five or six years in the nursery, — 
having passed the practicable season of moral training, with all 
our natural faults about us, tempers unregulated, pride and vanity 
decidedly pampered, and selfishness aggravated, we were sent to 
school to learn to read. That there is some improvement in 
schools, it would be great injustice not to acknowledge; but few 
adults can say that more than mere [reading was in their first 
school instruction vouchsafed to them. Even yet no attempt is 
made to direct aright the natural appetite of the young to know. 
Reading is a useful instrument of knowledge, but it is gross ig- 
norance to call it knowledge itself. Even at an age earlier than 
that of our " English school," the faculties ardently crave their 
natural food — knowledge. The infant purveys, in some degree 
for itself, to the great reproach of its unenlightened instructors. 
At school, these knowledge-craving faculties have little or no- 
thing done for them; on the contrary, their natural neglect of the 
school-book, the result of their preference of something else 
much more instructive as well as delightful, was punished as 
idleness and frivolity ; and we left our first school as we went to 
it, with scarcely any addition to our knowledge. 

We were now eight or nine years of age, and not past the 
season for yet commencing useful knowledge training. Crea- 
tion might yet have been made to open upon us to the incalcu- 
lable enlargement of the fund of our happiness, and these facul- 
ties might still have been delightfully exercised, by which know- 
ledge is acquired and stored ; — but no ! " the usages of society" de- 
manded that we should then commence " a classical education :" 
in other words, the study, for from six to ten years, of the lan- 
guages which were spoken by the Greeks and Romans, and 
which being no longer the vernacular tongues of any living peo- 
ple, are called the dead languages. There is a strong feeling 
prevailing that this usage is a monstrous error; in the educational 
crisis at which we have arrived, it is beginning to be inquired 
into ; and there can be no doubt that the schools of the dead lan- 
guages are falling off in popularity. This is, therefore, a sub- 
ject which I am not warranted to omit in this treatise. There 
is odium and imputed presumption in even approaching the 
strong holds of habit and prejudice with an inquiring purpose ; 
and that odium always holds an inverse proportion to the merit 
of the system or practice to be investigated. Truth and real 
merit neither dread nor resent free discussion. It is matter, too. 
of current observation, that the temperature of controversy is al- 



48 ARGUMENT ON WRONG BASIS. 

ways increased when interests are endangered : when, therefore 3 
we consider the splendid endowments, especially in England, 
for the study of classical literature, which have stood for centu- 
ries in venerable grandeur, and continue to dispense the richest 
prizes, it were in vain to look for dispassionate discussion in 
those who enjoy or look forward to these objects. Antiquity,and 
wealth, however, are not in themselves valid defences of social 
evils. The time is come for a grave trial of the claims of the 
dead languages to engross so many of the years of youth, to the 
exclusion nearly of all other kinds of education. If their advo- 
cates and incumbents be confident of the strength of their cause, 
they ought to court the inquiry, to save them from being pre- 
judged by a practical rejection which is daily gaining ground. 

It is a natural result of the long reign of an institution which 
it is held a sort of treason to question, that it is ill prepared for 
its defence when it comes to be put upon it. The treatises pro- 
fessedly defensive of classical literature are few, because, like 
the popish faith, it has long claimed infallibility, and the need of 
apologies for it was as little dreamed of as arguments for popery 
at Rome. When we do meet with that superfluity, as hitherto 
deemed, a defence of Latin and Greek, or rather a catalogue 
of their merits which is not expected to be questioned, it is 
wonderful how feeble we find it: scarcely an exception exists: 
even the talent of Vicesimus Knox is naught here. The ad- 
vocates of the dead languages uniformly avoid, or at least mis- 
take, the true ground of the controversy. They expatiate on 
the absolute merits of classical literature, but never dream of 
comparing it with the education which it excludes. When the 
question, however, is set on this latter ground, it is capable of 
great abridgment; for, though we should grant much of abso- 
lute value to the actual attainment of classical accomplishment, 
the experience of centuries has demonstrated that it is of value 
to so few of those who are forced to pursue it, that the patient 
repetition of the error from generation to generation, — the un- 
questioned duty of each oblivious father to enter his son in the 
classical curriculum, as he was entered by his son's grandfather, 
in which he is to devote years to what is expected to be faithfully 
forgotten, more majorum, affords a striking proof of the force of 
an ignorant custom inthralling an imperfectly educated people. 
Were the actual value, then, of classical study tenfold what it is, 
if it be true that ninety-nine in ever hundred who engage in it 
fail, and for centuries have failed of attaining that degree of pro- 
ficiency which is of any value at all, then classical study is not 
the proper education for ninety-nine in every hundred of* those 
who at present lose their time in the pursuit of it ; and who, as 
there is no substitute, are left uneducated to all useful practical 
ends and purposes. What is therefore wanted, is to abolish th© 



ARGUMENTS AND ANSWERS. 49 

exclusiveness of the dead languages ; to allot them their proper 
place as subjects of study ; to render them easily accessible to 
all who seek them, either as necessary to a learned profession, 
as a direct gratification of taste, or an elegant accomplishment ; 
and at the same time to substitute in early and general educa- 
tion, objects of study more practically useful, which, from their 
nature, will be better remembered, and will furnish the substan- 
tial power of knowledge and resource for life. All the real 
benefit to society from the classics, will thus be preserved ; it 
being obvious that no benefit accrues in any way whatever, 
either to the student or the community, from their stated oblivion. 
When we come to the proposed educational substitute, however, 
it is hoped it will be admitted that the condition of the non- 
classical world, will, after all, not be so desolate ; and that, 
though labouring in another field, or travellers by another road, 
they will present an aspect of society at least as enlightened, as 
powerful, and as accomplished, as any to be found within the 
walls of the most ancient classical foundations. Now all this 
is true, even on the assumption of greater advantages than can 
well be conceded to the dead languages; but it is still more 
worthy of consideration, if it be true that their value is greatly 
•overrated. 

What is arrogated for Latin and Greek, may be comprised in 
a few particulars. They afford, it is said, the best possible dis- 
cipline for the intellectual faculties : they are, from their per- 
fection as tongues, the best known subjects of philological 
exercise ; — for the same reason they are the most perfect instru- 
ments of thought with which we are acquainted ; — as radical 
languages they are the sources of a most extensive and instruct- 
ive etymology; — they are the depositories of much useful science 
and sublime philosophy, physical and moral ; — they are finally, 
par excellence, the native tongues of poetry, eloquence, wit and 
taste. Generally, I would humbly argue, that none of these 
claims are exclusive, even if granted to their fullest extent. 
The study of English alone, to say nothing of other modern 
languages, affords ample scope for intellectual discipline, to the 
limited extent that language can supply it; our own tongue is a 
copious and refined instrument of thought, and is capable of a 
most critical and logical analysis ; the Celtic, Saxon, and Scan- 
dinavian, have stronger claims on the ground of etymology, yet 
are never appealed to as necessary to explain their derivatives, 
and no more need the Latin and Greek. We are richer than 
Greece and Rome in poetry, oratory, wit and taste, because we 
have all theirs transfused, and all our own superadded ; and lastly, 
our science and philosophy reduce the pretensions of the Latins 
and Greeks, in this particular, to utter insignificance. 

It is no reply to say that all these advantages were originally 
5 



$0 INCORPORATION AND TRANSLATION, 

borrowed from the ancient tongues. This is granted, and g?aie> 
fully acknowledged ; still, if it was borrowed, it is incorporated } 
the loan is not merely enjoyed, but added to an immense super- 
structure of capital unknown to the lenders. Into English are 
transferred and incorporated correct logical grammar,— copious? 
refined, and exquisitely various, expression, — a store of taste, 
elegance, imagery, pathos, wit and criticism, — and all the science 
worth transferring ; while the ancient authors themselves are all 
translated, to the complete and undeniable appropriation of every 
thing but certain felicitous turns of expression, the only quality 
which translation cannot transfer, but at its best a luxury, too 
dearly purchased by exclusive study for one fourth of a lifetime. 
v It is undeniable, that as records of ancient civilization, such as 
it was, and of the institutions, laws, philosophy and literature of 
Greece and Rome, they are all transferred into our own lan- 
guage. An unfair use is made in the controversy, of the fact 
that the New Testament is written in Greek ; and a sort of 
charge of impiety is insinuated against those who object to the 
universal study of the tongue on this account. Now, no one 
has gone so far as to propose to extinguish Greek as an entity, 
or to deny that theologians ought to be master of it. But if the 
Christian message is only to be understood in Greek, why was it 
translated into English, and in that language alone read to and 
by the universal British people, with the perfect sanction of their 
spiritual guides, themselves masters of the original 1 

This discussion might be extended far beyond the space 
which can be allotted to it here. It may be observed summarily, 
1. It is to mistake, as shall be made "to appear in the sequel, 
the nature and operation of the faculties of the human mind, 
to talk of cultivating an instrument of thought previous to using 
it in actual thinking. The use of the tool is learned by applv^ 
ing it to the material, and cannot be learned without it ; and 
moreover, the material must be understood before the tool can be 
even conceived. The faculties require knowledge first, and 
then expression in language ; to reverse the order were a sole- 
cism ; in a word, thought must precede language; the utmost 
analytical refinements of language are only so many means of 
expressing varieties of thought ; the language did not create the 
thought, but the thought demanded the language ; so that when 
a mere philologist is engaged in his analytical task, and is deal- 
ing with ideas as well as words, he deceives himself if he thinks 
that the most refined expressions, the most delicate shades of 
meaning, suggested the ideas; much more if he imagines that 
they constitute the ideas themselves. How and where ideas 
are to be obtained by the right exercise of the faculties will after- 
wards be shown ; and it is trusted that it will then appear that 
nature has ordained a better course for this than translating 



ETYMOLOGY POETRY — ORATORY. 51 

analyzing and parsing a page of Greek; nay, that this last 
-operation itself will be more intelligently and usefully performed 
by the student, who comes to it with the knowledge stores of an 
intellectual training more in accordance with nature. 

2. It will likewise be shown in the sequel, that there are 
modes of disciplining the mind much more effectual than the 
most critical philology, whieh itself will be incalculably aided by 
that previous better discipline. As languages, Greek and Latin 
exercise but one faculty, — verbal memory ; their advocates 
who argue that they communicate a store of ideas, forget that 
these are as distinct from the languages themselves, " as is 
the swimmer from the flood," and that there are better, because 
more natural modes of obtaining them, modes much more en- 
titled to the name, of intellectual discipline, 

3. The etymological argument is losing weight every day. 
The derivatives in English are made, and most successfully, 
direct subjects of study, and as easy of comprehension as their 
roots. As already said, we follow this course with all words of 
Celtic, Saxon, or Scandinavian origin ; it is followed now, with 
regard to derivatives from Greek and Latin, by every school 
girl ; till all the terms of art and science so derived, are becoming 
as familiar as such words as telescope, philosophy, anatomy, 
panorama, &c. from the Greek, and mensuration, rejection^ 
emancipation, caution, &c. from the Latin* 

4. No one who knows them, denies the splendour, — imagina- 
tive, however, more than moral, — of classical poetry and oratory, 
more than he disallows the claims of painting, music, sculpture, 
and architecture. It is, however, not too much to condition for 
the former, as we always do for the latter, that those only whose 
talents point in the direction of the objects so as to offer a chance 
£>f excellence, should devote themselves to them. But we have 
English poetry. 



We too can sing 



With Lycidas, and build the lofty rhyme." 

We have exquisite poetry, besides, from female pens, whose 
authors never read a Greek or Latin poet in the original. 

5. It is matter of surprise to meet with the argument of 
science outside the walls of a very old classical foundation, with- 
in which the actual state of the scientific world is unknown. 
Latin and Greek contained science for the fourteenth and 
fifteenth centuries ; but it is surely too much to send the student 
of the nineteenth to the ancient authors for science. Every 

* Etymological Dictionaries are now in every girls school. Dr. 
Harrison Black has ably supplied this desiderate. . 



52 FALSE MORALITY OF THE CLASSICS. 

thing true and useful in these is to be found, improved upon a 
hundred fold, in thousands of English books ; while the great 
proportion that is false and useless is better forgotten. We can 
study Euclid's relations of Extension, Diophantus's relations of 
number, and Archimedes's demonstration of specific gravity, of 
the properties of the lever, and of the relations of the sphere, 
cylinder, and cone, — found by Cicero sculptured on his monu- 
mental stone, — without requiring previously to learn Greek. No 
teacher of chymistry, mechanical philosophy, anatomy, physi- 
ology, or medicine, would dream of recommending to his pupils 
the ancient theorists on these induction-created sciences; if they 
did so, it would only be as a curious history of error, a subject 
for antiquarian research. 

If for moral science, or ethics, we are told to go to Plato, 
Aristotle, Socrates, Zeno, Epicurus, Cicero, and Seneca, the 
answer will naturally be — to which of all these 1 for the meta- 
physics, morals, and ethics of none of the Greek sages — Cicero 
and Seneca were scarcely original theorists — agree with those of 
another. I am well aware that the same difficulty occurs to 
perplex our choice among modern metaphysicians and moral 
philosophers,-- -at least down to the time of Professor Dugald 
Stewart, who joins in the confession of the Abbe Bonald, that 
that philosophy is yet in expectation : but surely we need not 
take the trouble to learn Latin and Greek in quest of true phi- 
losophy not there to be found, merely that we may read, in the 
original, ingenious theories founded on false views of human na- 
ture, declamatory generalities about virtue and happiness, the 
practical worthlessness of which was exposed by their lack of 
practical effects in mitigating the selfishness, injustice, cruelty, 
and vice, of the people to whom they were taught, or rather 
before whom they were vainly displayed. 

But this is not all that may be said on the head of the morality 
of the classics ; there is another view of this topic deeply affect- 
ing the weal of society. Morality is placed by the classical 
authors upon a false and any thing but a Christian basis ; and 
yet they are most strenuously advocated by the clergy, espe- 
cially in England, as the most appropriate discipline for the 
youthful mind. This is evidently the result of the habit of not. 
inquiring into the nature and consistency of long established cus- 
toms. As part of an education professedly Christian, admira- 
tion of the ancient heathens is worked up almost to idolatry in 
the student their natural selfishness and injustice, called patriot-, 
ism, are positively recommended as the noblest objects of imi- 
tation ; the history of their murderous aggressive wars, rapine, 
and martial glory is listened to with delight, and made in mi- 
mic essay the pastime of the play-ground of every grammar 
school ; the sensuality and profligacy that defile, sometimes witk 



EFFECTS ON SOCIETY — BARBARISM OF THE ANCIENTS. 53 

nameless abomination, the pages of the satirical and other poets, 
which, countenanced for a moment, would meet with and merit 
stoning by the populace, nay the immoralities of the mytholo- 
gical pantheon itself, as a subject of study in a Christian coun- 
try, have all, as stated exercises for our youth, afforded matter of 
amazement to those who perceive moral distinctions, and are 
accustomed to observe and think consistently. A different stan- 
dard of morals, another rule of right and wrong, seems by habit 
to be applied to those privileged tribes of the ancient world, than 
is acknowledged, theoretically at least, in regard to the modern ; 
so that sensuality, selfishness, injustice, rapacity, cruelty, and 
crime, are, in the first, not only passed over as of a different spe- 
cific gravity from what they count for now-a-days, but are press- 
ed upon the opening faculties as the constituents of moral gran- 
deur and practical virtue ! This essential barbarism recoils 
dreadfully on society: Christianity itself is overborne by a spu-* 
rious morality imbibed from the ancient authors, and society con- 
tinues selfish, sensual, and belligerent. It is high time that truth 
were looked in the face, and the world disabused of this super- 
stition, which has too long survived the popish ; when a higher 
moral education shall have taken the bandage from our eyes, it 
will cease to raise a shout of wonder and scorn to predicate that, 
morally viewed, the Greeks and Romans were barbarians from 
the first to the last hour of their histor}^ and that in their own 
barbarism they were finally extinguished. It will tend to recon- 
cile the reader to this apparently bold thesis, if it should chance 
to be new to him, to distinguish between the admitted civiliza- 
tion, and the essential barbarism of the ancients. These com- 
munities passed through many stages of social progress. The 
human intellect never developed itself more brilliantly. In no 
age or nation have men of more splendid talents appeared — 
more gifted statesmen, more lofty orators, more graphic histo- 
rians, more ingenious philosophers, more consummate generals, 
more able lawyers, more sublime poets, more exquisite artists, 
and, considering the state of physical science, more skilful me- 
chanicians. Their cities were models of architectural grace and 
symmetry; their ways and aqueducts were stupendous; their 
temples, their theatres, their palaces, have no parallels in mo- 
dern times. Elegance and luxury were carried to their very 
acme among them. The Roman armies were the most tremen- 
dous engines of human power ever produced by human combi- 
nation. The description given by Josephus, of the army which 
invaded Judea and destroyed Jerusalem, impresses us with the 
idea of the art-military improved to its ne plus ultra in discipline, 
tactic, promptitude, and co-operation, as if it had been one com- 
plicated, yet simply and irresistibly acting machine of iron and 
steeL We are accustomed to associate all that is graceful with 
5* 



54 MORALITY OF CHRISTIANITY UNKNOWN* 

Greece, and all that is powerful with Rome; we were early told 
that the world was refined by the one, and prostrated by the 
other ; we were trained from boyhood almost to worship their 
books, and the very languages in which they are written ; we 
are familiar with venerable institutions and vast endowments in 
our own island, for the study of these languages alone, while 
Greek and Roman wisdom, valour, patriotism, and virtue, have 
been to us as household words. It is time for us to try all this 
by another standard, and one which, had we been educated on 
right principles, we would have applied long ago. The barba- 
rism of the ancients may be summed up in a word, — Christian 
morality was unknown in Greece and Rome. Mercy and 
justice did not form the foundation or the actuating principle of 
their institutions, their polity, or their private life. The virtue 
of their republics was mere self-exaltation, called patriotism, 
which was accompanied with gross injustice and cruelty to all 
other nations ; while a pampered appetite fot military glory, and 
a systematic grasping ambition, produced almost perpetual war 
for conquest and plunder, with all the horrors and miseries 
of that worst form of crime. The Roman share in these 
wars, with a few exceptions of retributive invasions by the 
more powerful victims of their injustice, was exclusively ag- 
gressive. The nation, and every individual of which it was 
composed, either joined in, or heartily sympathised with, these 
grand outrages of moral principle. Hence war, bloodshed, pride, 
ambition, with an insatiable rapacity, formed the basis of the Ro- 
man character, actuated their policy, controlled their education, 
and constituted their very being. This is what is meant by 
Roman barbarism. It differed from the savage state only in the 
extended intellect and improved combinations which enlarged its 
range, and increased its power of evil. Poets sung its atroeities 
as the summit of human glory, — for there is no greater test 
of barbarism than blindness to its own features, and the mistake 
of its crimes for virtues ; orators lauded the deeds of blood and ra- 
pine, in which sometimes as soldiers they had borne a part, and lis- 
tening senates hung upon their lips, as they fed to fulness the 
coarsest appetites of national vanity and selfishness. Historians 
were ready, in their turn, to record in their imperishable pages, 
the proud crimes of their countrymen : and philosophers systema- 
tised a spurious virtue out of the inferior impulses of human 
nature. Such was the actual national practice from the days of 
Romulus to those of Constantine. We do not find that even the 
sage philosophers themselves condemned, and we are left to sup- 
pose they countenanced and witnessed, the savage scenes of the 
amphitheatre, where Pompey slaughtered 500 lions, and Trajan 
11,000 wild beasts, and 5000 gladiators, to glut the Roman de- 
light in blood. Whole days were spent in these theatres by the 



TALENT WASTED— COLLEGE. 55 

citizens of all ranks, witnessing the combats of men and beasts 
with breathless interest, and feasting their eyes with torture and 
death. The custom continued to debase and brutalize the peo- 
ple for centuries. Certainly, there never existed on earth a 
more sanguinary race than the admired Romans. This thirst 
of blood added to gross sensuality, and the corruption which 
arose out of and ministered to it, the falsehood and dishonesty 
which characterized public and private life, were barbarism in the 
midst of all the gorgeousness of physical, luxurious, and literary 
civilization. Morally, the Romans, and not less the Greeks, were 
uncivilized, and as the course of the selfish faculties which swayed 
them is downward, they gradually sank and ultimately perished. 

The talent bestowed on classical pursuits is sometimes such 
as would master the sciences and extend their range. The 
prize list of a great grammar-school often presents wonderful 
productions of difficulty and labour. The efforts at College are 
still more herculean, and health and life are not seldom sacrificed 
in making them. 

The grammar-school finished about fifteen, the acquisition of 
useful practical knowledge may even yet be made, though under 
great disadvantages. lmt the feast which Nature spreads is 
especially withheld from the devoted youth destined to the 
classical glories of College. Special, laborious, and expensive 
care is taken to exclude the chance of his picking up even 
stray knowledge, by engaging him engrossingly in pursuits 
which lead away from it. When finished at school, he is said 
to be " prepared for College," and it is the greatest boast of a 
grammar-school, that its pupils are well fitted for this advance- 
ment, and become renowned for bearing away the University 
honours. Now " College," in the sense alluded to, does nor 
mean the attainment of physical and moral science, the know- 
ledge of Creation as revealed in the works of God ; it means 
more yet of the dead languages, more yet of these standards 
of science and morality, the Greeks and Romans ; it means ad- 
vancement in the " higher classics ;" a greater elevation still - 
above all vulgar studies which are to be of practical use in the 
attainment of good and the avoidance of evil in after life.* 
The school keeps an eye upon its former alumni, and glo- 

* The term higher classics recalls a mode of reasoning adopted by 
scholars to silence the gainsayer on- the score of his incompetency. 
They tell him he is out of his depth when he questions the suprema- ■ 
cy of classical literature, it being the privilege of few to attain to a 
knowledge of its exquisite beauties and perfections. The first ans-wer 
to this is, that there could not be a stronger reason for forthwith-aban- 
doning the custom of wasting, on such a pursuit, the time of the many; 
while the second is a challenge to point out any passage in any au~ 
thor, Greek or Latin, which, saving always a certain felicity of expres- 
sion, may not be given in English, to all the effect it possesses of de- 
lighting or improving the thinking or feeling faculties of man. 



56 ASSUMPTION BY GRAMMAR-SGHOOLS» 

ries in their triumphs in the dead languages, in the rank 
they take at College, the scholarships, the fellowships they 
achieve. Nay, this is not all, the school preposterously claims 
to itself the credit of the whole future fame and fortune 
of its quondam pupil, the whole fruits of that education which 
he subsequently gave himself; and which the time he wasted 
within its walls only postponed ; while his Greek and Latin have 
not only contributed nothing to his advancement, but have been 
most probably almost entirely forgotten by him. There is no 
part of this solemn mockery of intellectual cultivation more tan- 
talizing than the fact, that classical honours are borne away by 
efforts, not in the direct, but the inverse ratio of the value of the 
attainments rewarded. Ambition performs feats. almost incredi- 
ble ; it furnishes an impulse which makes light and pleasurable 
tasks which, without it, would be an intolerable grievance. The 
literary performances are often of great merit, and were they not 
all,\\ere they an elegant surplusage to practical wisdom and useful 
knowledge, they would be so much gained, an additional grace 
well worth possessing. But when they are all the hard earn- 
ings of the noonday and the midnight, when the same time, 
talent, and labour, properly directed, would have rewarded the 
young student with an extent of knowledge, and accomplish- 
ment, and resource, which few by their own efforts subsequently 
attain, we can only account for the deadlanguages^'continuing for 
another day to occupy so long exclusively the seat of education, 
by reflecting that the men who suffer its continuance were once 
boys, whom it at one and the same time cheated of sound know- 
ledge, and intrenched in impregnable prejudice.* 

If all this shall appear to be strongly stated, if it shall excite, 
as it will no doubt do, angry feelings in those attached to the 

+ As these strictures will very probably be objected to, as referring 
to grammar schools as they were, and written in ignorance of the im- 
provements now introduced into them, it was thought desirable to ob- 
tain some of the recent reports and prize lists which are statedly pub- 
lished by the more important of these seminaries, and all that I have 
seen, indicate as yet paramount the old subjects of study and compe- 
tition. It is worthy of remark, too, that the improvements claimed, 
are neither more nor less than partial introductions of the very useful 
knowledge now. advocated ; in other words, partial displacements of 
Greek and Latin. In the two great seminaries of Edinburgh, the 
High School and Academy, there is considerable improvement in this 
way ; but both establishments, put their scholarship foremost, in their 
appeal to the public. We find prizes for "best Grecian, best Greek 
prose, best Greek verses, best Latin verses;" and themes written by boys 
of fourteen, when the faculties are unfit for the subjects, which it would 
task the powers of the ablest tacticians, politicians, and philosophers 
to deal with, such as " Was the attack of Saguntum by Hannibal, and 
the invasion of Italy, justifiable on the reasons which he alleges? — 
Which was the ablest general, Caesar or Hannibal? — On the pro- 
gress and decline of commercial nations — Whether was Livy or He- 
rodotus the most correct historian ? — On the progress of mankind from 



AUTHORITIES AGAINST THEM — MTLTON — LOCKE. 57 

classics by habit and by fame, and angrier still in those linked to 
them by interest, the writer has two grounds of deprecation ; 
First, he abjures all personal feeling in his strictures on a 
system of centuries. He knows the talent and the worth of 
many of its advocates and retainers ; to some of them he is 
closely bound by the ties of friendship and affection. He re- 
members, with almost filial respect, the venerable men, now no 
more, who were his kind and sincere instructers ; respects the 
existing generation of classical teachers ; and so far is he from 
wishing to affect their patrimonial status, that he would be the 
first to compensate them for the loss occasioned to them by the 
adoption of a system of education more in harmony with the 
age, and more consistent with the nature and faculties of man. 

Secondly, the author claims the shelter from their displeasure 
of names, which they will certainly join him in venerating. — 
Milton has these words: "Hence appear the many mis- 
takes which have made learning generally so unpleasant and so 
unsuccessful. First, we do amiss to spend seven or eight years 
merely in scraping together so much miserable Latin and Greek, 
as might be learned otherwise easily and delightfully in one 
year ;* and that which casts our proficiency so much behind is, 
oar time lost in too oft idle vacancies given both to schools and 
universities, partly in a preposterous exaction from the empty 
wits of children, to compose themes, verses, and orations, which 
are the acts of ripest judgment. 1 ' In another place, Milton 
says, " Though a linguist should pride himself to have all the 
tongues that Babel cleft this world into, yet, if he has not studied 
the solid things in them, as well as the words and lexicons, he 
were nothing so much to be esteemed a learned man, as any 
yeoman or tradesman competently wise in his mother-dialect 
only." 

Locke, on Education, says, "Would not a Chinese, who had 
notice of our way of breeding, be apt to imagine, that all our 
young gentlemen were designed to be teachers and professors of 
the dead languages of foreign countries, and not to be men of 
business in their own V Again, the same author says (for he 
reprobates the practice in several passages :) " But though the 

barbarism to civilization and refinement. — Whether is aristocracy or 
democracy ultimately more dangerous to public liberty ! — On the man- 
ners of the heroic ages/' &c. It will astonish a more rationally edu- 
cated age than our own, that the most enlightened men of the second 
quarter of the nineteenth century were satisfied with this as the fruit 
of seven years labours in their sons ; well aware, at the same time, from 
their own experience, that the self-education, which is to fit for active 
life, has yet to begin after all the prizes for long and laborious scholas- 
tic trifling have been awarded, and all the applauses bestowed. 

* On saving time, and other matters, see Letter from Mr. Cunning- 
ham, head master of the Edinburgh Institution for Languages, &c. 
App, No, IV. 



58 GIBBON— SMITH — BVRON. 

qualifications requisite to trade and commerce, and the business 
of the world, are seldom or never to be got at grammar-schools, 
yet thither not only gentlemen send their younger sons intend- 
ed for trades, but even tradesmen and farmers fail not to send 
their children, though they have neither intention nor ability to 
make them scholars. If you ask them why they do this 1 they 
think it as strange a question as if you should ask them why they 
go to church 1 Custom serves for reason, and has, to those that 
take it for reason, so consecrated this method, that it is almost 
religiously observed by them ; and they stick to it, as if their 
children had scarce an orthodox education unless they learned 
Lilly's grammar." A passage follows on the subject of the 
special oblivion of Greek. " How many are there of a hundred, 
even among scholars themselves, who retain the Greek they 
carried from school, or ever improve it to a familiar reading and 
perfect understanding of Greek authors ?"* 

Gibbon observes, that a finished scholar may emerge from 
the head of Eton or Westminster, in total ignorance of the 
business and conversation of gentlemen, in the latter end of the 
eighteenth century." 

Adam Smith makes the remark, that " it seldom happens that 
a man, in any part of his life, derives any conveniency or advan- 
tage from some of the most laborious and troublesome parts of 
his education." 

Byron, on the authority of his biographer Moore, was a bad 
Greek and Latin scholar at Harrow; hated the drudgery they 
imposed upon him, and acquired his copious, flexible and splen- 
did style by extensive English reading. 

It is necessary to repeat the qualification of the whole argu- 
ment, — for nothing is more apt to be forgotten by the advocates 
of classical studies, — that not a word which has been said can 
even be perverted to mean absolute hostility to Latin and Greek, 
to the length of banishing them utterly from education as a 
pursuit. The study of them, but at a more advanced stage of 
education, and for a moderate portion of time, as advised by 
Milton, is necessary for the divine — who must add Hebrew — 
the lawyer and the physician. Nay, more; even the higher 
classics afford an object which will well reward the kind of 
genius which is fitted for the pursuit. What is contended for 
is, the rescue of our entire youth from the dead languages, — from 
the engrossing exclusiveness of that one object, during all the 
period when real knowledge is most naturally and beneficially 
attainable. It will at once occur to the reader, that this qualiff- 

* A singularly confirmatory letter from Dr. Christison, present profes- 
sor oi Materia Medica in the University of Edinburgh, who obtained the 
highest honours for Greek, both at school and college, and nevertheless 
has nearly forgotten that tongue, was iatelv published in Mr. Combe's 
lectures on Education," 



PHYSICAL SCIENCE — MENTAL. B9 

cation is precisely that which is likely to be most unwelcome to 
the teachers of the dead languages, whose emoluments depend 
upon the numbers of their pupils ; but this cannot affect the truth 
of the distinction. 

Our scientific studies are unexceptionably provided for at 
College. In all the branches of natural history, chymistry, and 
mechanical philosophy, we have the means offered us of the 
highest attainments. Suppose us to have completely mastered 
all these branches of physical science, the question remains, 
What is our access to the science of mind, or, more extensively, 
the science of man? To physical man, there exist ample means 
of being introduced ; but anatomy and physiology are never 
dreamed of by any one not destined to the medical profession ; 
the most highly educated gentleman knows as little about his 
own bodily frame, or its relations to external nature, as the most 
uninformed of the manual-labour class, and is nearly as ignorant 
of the conditions of health, though, practically and by habit more 
than principle cleaner in his person and dwelling. But it is in 
the philosophy of mind that our Universities present the grand 
blank.* Yet truth in this science must be arrived at before 
human affairs can be placed on a sound moral foundation. If it 
be undeniable, that the true guiding principle of human affairs 
can only be the accordance of human affairs with human facul- 
ties, what must not be the extent of the evils which humanity 
suffers, when yet in ignorance or uncertainty as to the nature of 
these faculties 1 Can we wonder at the connection in speculation, 
and the confusion in action, which prevail around us? Above 
all, what title have we to expect that education, — which is es- 
sentially the improvement of the human faculties, the guide to 
their right use, and the guard against that miserable abuse which 
far and wide imbitters life, — can be either theoretically or 
practically understood, when no two philosophers are agreed as 
to what the faculties are ; and few writers on education have 
thought of appealing to them, or considered it neeessary to take 
them into account at all in their speculations. But this branch 
of the subject will be treated more at large in the next chapter ; 
the utmost object of this and the preceding will have been at- 
tained, if they shall tend to open our eyes, not only to the deso- 
late state of seven eighths of our countrymen for lack of that 
knowledge which alone will enable them to co-operate in their 
own elevation, physical, moral, and intellectual, but not less to 
the imperfections of our own education, our ignorance of that 
imperfection, and, the natural result, our unfortunate apathy on 
the important subject. 

* Professor Dugald Stewart's confession on this head has been al- 
ready referred to. 



60 



CHAPTER III. 



ON THE FACULTIES OF MAN AND THEIR- RELATIVE OBJECTS- 



Man the being to be educated — Knowledge of his nature required- 
Training horses and dogs — Education, its three essentials — Human 
body, improvement of— The senses — their objects — Faculties of mind 
disputed — Modes mistaken for faculties — Admitted view of man's 
nature— Shakspeare's and Scott's — Postulates to be conceded- 
Physiological evidence not founded on— Experience — Nine animal 
propensities — Self-Love — Desire of estimation — Fear — Inferior feel- 
ings what — Law in the mind — Benevolence — Justice — Veneration — 
Ethics — Christianity — Seven other moral sentiments — Intellect — 
Knowing faculties — Reflecting — Language— Tabular view of facul- 
ties — Possessed by all, but in different degrees — Innate and per- 
manent — Combination— Degrees of rank in faculties — Supremacy of 
Sentiments and Intellect illustrated— Mr. Combe's original views. 



If the being to be educated is man, some knowledge of his 
nature would seem to be a requisite preliminary to his actual 
education. Treatises abound in which we are told that man 
ought to be trained according to his nature, in harmony with 
his faculties; but, with a few recent exceptions, no educational 
writer has made an attempt which deserves the name of system- 
atic, to inquire what that nature is, or those faculties are. The 
trainers of horses and dogs proceed much more philosophically i 
they leave nothing to hazard, but study, with the utmost care, the 
distinguishing qualities of the animals, and apply the best treat- 
ment to those qualities. But any kind of training is held good 
enough for the human animal, and moreover any kind of trainer 
who professes to undertake the office. When the principles 
which ought to regulate education are understood, this grievous 
error will be corrected. It will then be known, and the know- 
ledge acted upon, that education is a process calculated to qualify 
man to think, feel, and act, in a manner most productive of hap- 
piness. It will be known that he has a certain constitution of 
body and mind, having certain definite relations to beings and 
things external to itself, and that in these relations are the con- 
ditions of his weal or wo. Education will then be seen to have 



ESSENTIALS— THE BODY — SENSES. 61 

three essentials-rfirst, by early exercise to improve the powers 
and faculties, bodily and mental; — secondly, to impart a know- 
ledge of the nature and purposes of these powers and faculties ; 
— and, thirdly, to convey as extensive a knowledge as possible of 
the nature of external beings and things, and the relations of 
these to the human constitution. 

There is an education for the body, as well ls the mind; the 
body has bones, joints, muscles, tendons, all constructed in 
beautiful relation to the properties of matter, to the mechanical 
laws of force, resistance, gravitation, and equilibrium, and sus- 
ceptible of improved adaptation by proper training-. The skin 
is adapted to its purposes of insensible perspiration, regulation 
of heat, absorption, and other functions, and is likewise capable 
of increase of healthy action. The lungs, heart, and blood, and 
the air of the atmosphere, were created in pointed relation to 
«ach other, and disease and death are often the consequences of 
man's ignorance of this relation. The stomach and alimentary 
canal form a perfect chymical apparatus for digesting animal and 
vegetable matter, with relation to whose properties they were 
formed, and for absorbing and assimilating the digested and 
wonderfully prepared material to the constant repair of the bodily 
waste, from the substance of a bone or fibre of a muscle, up to 
the exquisite texture of the eye, and the yet more mvsterious 
essence of the nerves, the spinal marrow, and the bn in. All 
these points of knowledge offer a fund of practical education ; 
the viguur of the body may, by judicious habits and exercise, 
be increased, and life improved in comfort and happiness ; while 
the havoc made by ignorance, and the sufferings of a shortened 
life by abuse of its functions, may be greatly diminished, if 
not prevented. That these bodily qualities form part of the 
constitution of man, is all to which it is necessary now to , 
advert ; the education which has relation to the body, and 
through the body to the mind, — which last owes much of its 
vigour and efficiency to the power of the muscles, the energy of 
the nerves, the regularity of the. digestion, the purity of the 
blood, the soundness and sanity of the brain, — belong* to the 
next chapter. 

The senses are an important object of educate* as the media 
of man's communication with the material vrorld ; the exquisite 
adaptation of these to the known qualities of matter,— of the eye 
to the properties of light, the ear to those of sound, and so of 
the others, is obvious and universally admitted. 

It is far otherwise with the faculties of the mind. From the 
days of Plato downwards, no two philosophers have been 
agreed as to what they are, or in what they consist. How was 
it then possible to educate unknown faculties, and where is the 
sender that, when the attempt has been made, systems of educa- 
6 



62 MODES MISTAKEN FOR POWERS. 

tion have been so various and contradictory % Nothing can form 
a more instructive proof of the non-practical character of the 
differing and contradicting analyses of the human mind which 
metaphysicians have severally propounded, than the failure of 
one and all of them to systematise education. The grand obsta- 
cle has been, that modes of mental action have, in various ways, 
been mistaken for primitive powers of mind; in other words, 
operations of mind, and not the specific operating energies, have 
been observed. Now it is manifest that operations, as such, are 
incapable of educational improvement, unless the operating 
powers be first improved ; it is impossible to improve the act, 
without previously improving the actor ; hence no progress has 
been made in the education of man according to his faculties, 
just because the acting powers, the faculties themselves, have 
not been ascertained, but their operations, or rather modes of 
operating, alone observed. Take for an example Consciousness , 
tvhich is catalogued as a faculty by the most approved and popu- 
lar, philosophers of mind : yet it is not a faculty, but the opera- 
tion of several faculties, acting sometimes separately, sometimes 
together. It were in vain for a teacher of youth to set about 
improving Consciousness; as a special act, or a succession of 
acts, it is incapable either of enlargement or restriction. As 
well might the arrow's flight be rendered more swift and certain, 
after it has left the bow. The arrow's flight is a mode or act ; 
thelmpelling power is the elasticity of the bow, and the mus- 
cular vigour and skill of the archer. Both of these, especially 
(the last, are capable of improvement. In like manner, the 
powers which produce Consciousness are the legitimate objects 
of education, and. it will presently appear that it is not difficult 
tto ascertain what these are. Again, An able female author on 
education* bestows some chapters on the importance of educat- 
ing Attention as a faculty. But Attention is not a faculty more 
than Consciousness ; it is the mode or act of many other facul- 
ties, which in that act, direct themselves to their respective 
objects. Here too it were to pursue a shadow, to attempt to 
improve the mere act ; the powers that act must be ascertained, 
and improvement sought in exercising those powers ; and that 
very exercise implies the mode called Attention. The same 
may be said of sutli other alleged faculties, but mere modes of 
action, as Perception, Conception, Judgment, &c. Perception, 
must have a percipient, a power which perceives ^Conception 
a power which conceives, and Judgment a power or powers 
which judge. 

The metaphysicians come nearer to positive primitive facul- 
ties in what they call the active powers ox affections. They 
acknowledge Benevolence, Hope, Conscience, Self-Love, Love 
* Mrs. Elizabeth Hamilton- 



ADMITTED VIEW OF MAN'S NATURE. 63 

of Fame,. Love of Wealth, &c. ; but although these are primi- 
tive impulses, capable of direct improvement or regulation by 
education, \ve know of no positive institutions for that momen- 
tous purpose, till Infant Schools were realized. 

Now it is plain, that until an approximation shall be made to 
something like a practical analysis of the mind of man, until the 
faculties to be improved by education are known, education must 
continue to be vague, misdirected, and inefficient, as it has hi- 
therto been. If, as is evident, we can make no practical use of a 
great part of the catalogue of faculties which we studied at Col- 
lege, may we not meet upon some admitted common ground ? 
May we not adopt those impulses or powders of mind, which di- 
rectly constitute the view of man taken by necessity, although 
very unsystematically, in the common affairs of life ; but by 
philosophers rejected, and therefore never reduced to any thing 
like system, and above all, never resorted to in education. Let 
any one think what are the tendencies or characteristics in his 
fellow men to which he traces their actions, and upon which he 
relies with the utmost confidence for certain expected results. 
Let us turn to our most successful portrayers of nature, Shaks- 
peare and Scott, and observe what are their constituent charac- 
teristics of that nature, to which the same faculties in ourselves 
echo with such delighted sympathy. Assuredly these will set* 
be found in the catalogues of the metaphysicians. I should be 
safe in conditioning, that I shall not need to claim for human 
nature any one impulse not recognised and dealt with — practically 
though not systematically — by Shakspeare and Scott. These 
are capable, we think, of a much more satisfactory analysis than 
might be supposed ; an analysis which I only require to be grant- 
ed to me, even for argument's sake, to obtain a basis for education 
which would advance its efficiency to a degree almost beyond our 
calculation. I feel so confident that all my postulates as to human 
pow T ers, impulses, instincts, or faculties, — for we need not dis- 
pute about names,^-will be conceded to me, from the impossibil- 
ity, as I humbly view it, of refusing the concession, that I am 
content to peril the whole argument, upon the admission by eve- 
ry educated person — First, that the impulses now to be enume- 
rated form constituent parts of man ; and, Secondly, that, as is 
true of the physical "structure and organic functions each is re- 
lated to some object or objects in nature, moral or physical, ex- 
ternal to itself, but directly pointing to it, upon which it is exer- 
cised. I wish it, however, to be distinctly understood, that I do 
not found upon physiological evidence of the truth of the analysis 
of faculties which I am humbly to offer, because that evidence is 
not generally admitted ; I do not require to trace each faculty to 
a disputed cerebral origin ; the faculties shall be merely meta- 
physically submitted seriatim to the reader's judgment, and his 
own experience appealed to ; and any one which he does not re* 



64 INSTINCTS OF POOD — SEX — OFFSPRING — ATTACHMENT. 

cognise in man, I am quite contented that he shall reject. If, 
too, he does not think the relative object correctly added to each 
faculty as we advance, that too he is at perfect liberty to disal- 
low. 

1st, I do not fear denial, when I claim for man an appetite 
for food, an instinct which directs bim, even when new-born, 
to remove the pain of hunger, the only pain then removable by 
an act of his own. Forming a variety or mode of the instinct of 
food, which last includes hunger and thirst, is the desire of the 
stimulus of alcohol in wine or some other shape. The abuses 
of these appetites are gluttony and drunkenness. That this in- 
stinct is primitive, is demonstrated by its being often manifested 
in a state of disease ; the insatiable craving of hunger, even when 
the stomach is full, is a common lunatic symptom ; while the 
temptations of wine and ardent spirits often become altogether 
beyond the control of the will. The relative objects of that in- 
stinct are edible animal and vegetable matter ; while the juice of 
the grape, and other extracts capable of being fermented and dis- 
tilled, gratify the taste for alcohol alluded to. 

2d, For the preservation of his species, man is endowed with 
an instinct of sex. As the abuse of this impulse leads to much 
evil and suffering, individual and social, it requires much [more 
educational watching and regulation than it ever receives. The 
consequences of this neglect to body and mind are often horrible. 
Its derangement is known in lunatic asylums, and detailed in 
works on insanity. Its object, relatively, is the other sex. 

3d, Man has an impulse to cherish his offspring. There 
are cases in which this propensity has been morbidly excited. 
Its relative object is the helplessness a nd innocence of childhood : 
the feeling and the object were intended for each other. 

4th, A propensity of attachment to his fellow men, in the 
alliances of society and friendship, is a part of man's constitution. 
This feeling is so strong, that solitude has often produced mental 
alienation, as has the unmitigated silence of some penitentiaries.* 
Man's fellows exist in manifest relation to this social tendency. 

5th, No impulse requires more the restraining hand of educa- 
tion than the propensity to contend and fight. We are 
made most aware of its being part of man, by seeing it in the 
various forms of its abuse, contentiousness, contradiction, vio- 
lence, assault, and war. But as no instinct or faculty was given 
for the purposes of abuse we shall find the use of this propensity 
in self-defence, courage, enterprise, and general activity. This 
impulse has a marked relation to external objects ; it was given 
to man that he may repel the dangers which often assail him from 
other animals, and the passions of his fellow men. 

6th, It is not enough that man shall contend and fight, it is often 

* See Appendix, No. I. 



IMPULSE TO DESTROY — TO CONCEAL. 55 

imperative upon him to destroy. Besides killing for food, he 
must in self-defence, kill dangerous animals, and more danger* 
ous men, that assail him : and to fit him for this, he has an 
instinct to destroy. The feelings which prompt this extreme , 
with regard to his own species at least, are resentment, anger , 
and rage ; these are often abuses, and certainly so is a eruel de- 
light in giving pain, and even depriving of life. In disease it is 
the most dangerous form of madness ; it produces murder with- 
out motive, appetite for blood,* ungovernable violence, and in- 
discriminate destruction of every thing within its reach. Much 
short of disease it is a troublesome propensity ; cruelty to ani- 
mals, and the tendency to deface and destroy, are its manifesta- 
tions ; while the irascible tempers which disquiet the domestic 
circle, *are its most ordinary form of abuse. It requires for its 
regulation, ifnotits repression, the firmest and the gentlest educa- 
tional management. The impulse is widely spread in the ani- 
mal creation ; it is the instinct of prey ; and teeth, tusks, beaks, 
and claws, are its instruments. It prompts man, too, to arm 
himself with destructive weapons, from the rude club to the bat- 
tery of cannon.^ Lastly, it constitutes the impulse to punish, to 
inflict pain, torture, and death. 

1th. In nothing will the observant instructer of youthperceive 
more diversity among individuals, than in the characteristics of 
reserve or openness. Some individuals are so close, that no- 
thing can be extracted from them ; others apparently conceal 
nothing. The truth is, that all conceal much more than they 
declare, and an impulse to conceal is a constituent part of man, 
for the wise purpose of preventing that constant exposure' of 
thought and purpose, which would not only render society in- 
tolerable, but would remove a material guard against the evils 
which by their selfish passions, men are inclined to inflict upon 
each other. The right use of the impulse to conceal is a prudenE 
reserve ; its abuse is cunning, duplicity and deceit. Those who 
are conversant w T ith the insane, are too well aware how often a 
morbid habitual cunning calls for increased vigilance. The re- 
lated objects of the faculty are the other faculties whose outward 
manifestations it restrains : the perfection of what is called acting, 
in both a favourable and unfavourable sense, depends partly on 
the energy of this power : some children are consummate actors, 
and thereby greatly perplex their teachers who are ignorant of the 
spring and origin of that character. Several animals are strong- 
ly characterized by this instinct, for example, the fox, cat, tiger, 
and all that steal upon their prey ; not less are those who use de- 
ceptions to escape their enemies, as the hare, &c. 

Sth, Man has a desire to possess the material things that 

* See Appendix No. II. on Homicidal Monomania. 
6* 



66 ANIMAL PROPENSITIES. 

contribute to his well-being, and loves to accumulate them m 
exclusive property. When the advantages to society of this 
accumulation are reflected upon, it is evident that what is called 
capital, is an institution of nature, confined to man as to indefi- 
nite accumulation, though observed in bees, beavers, and some 
other animals as to annual store. It is only necessary to think 
what would be the condition of social man if he lived, like most 
animals, on the chance of each day, to be convinced of the con- 
nexion between accumulation and social power and enjoyment. 
The use of the faculty to each individual, is the attainment of 
the means of regular subsistence for a family, and the benefit of 
inheritance : its abuse is avarice ; its grosser abuse theft : 
its disease every one has heard of or witnessed in an impulse, 
not created by necessity, but beyond the will's control, to appro- 
priate things of value, and, in the worst cases, whether of value 
or not. The related objects of the propensity, are material 
things which afford enjoyment in some way to the faculties, and 
money their sign and convertible value. The regulation of this 
propensity ought to be an important object of attention in education. 

9th, Independently of his reason, man has an impulse to con- 
struct, to change the forms and combinations of matter into in- 
struments and accommodations. • Franklin called him a "tool- 
making animal." The faci.lty is often possessed in uncommon 
power by cretins and other idiots without an atom of intellect to 
guide it. Reason and imagination greatly aid the faculty in man, 
as is evident when we compare the wigwam with the palace. 
Individuals differ greatly in this primitive power; some can 
make whatever they see, others cannot fold a letter neatly. 
The relative objects of the impulse are manifest in the material 
world. This power the judicious instructer will recognise and 
call forth in his pupil. 

It must have occurred to the reader, that in the inferior ani- 
mals are found all the nine propensities now described, for they 
are well nigh essential to animal existence. On this ground I 
ask leave to distingush them as a class, and refer to them in the 
sequel, by the name of the animal propensities. Before leav- 
ing this class of faculties, it seems the best tboe to appeal to the 
reader's experience if it be not truth, and press \h e fact on the 
attention of the educationist, that vice and crime, in all their 
phases and varieties, are but other terms for the abuse of one 
or more of these specified impulses. The enumeration of a few 
will sufficiently illustrate this, every one can apply each instance 
to the impulse abused, for they are set down in the order 
adopted— namely, gluttony, drunkenness, incontinence, conten- 
tion, violence, cruelty, murder, robbery, fraud, theft, &c 

10th, Scarcely anticipating the possibility of the rejection of 
any of the nine impulses [already submitted, I would next, witfe 



DESIRE OF ESTIMATION. 67 

s\ot less confidence, claim for the man we are compounding, a 
sentiment of self-love, in which is included as well self-ele- 
vation as self-preference. In due and beneficial endowment, it is 
a legitimate attention to our own well being; it is self-respect, ir- 
dependence, and confidence in our own powers and capacities. 
In abuse, it is pride, self-sufficiency, disdain, insolence, love of 
power, tyranny, and general selfishness. It is a great exciting 
cause of the activity of the impulse to resentment and rage, and 
then it takes the deeper colour of revenge ; and, when combined 
with the impulse to appropriate, it renders that propensity yet 
more steady, grasping, and exclusive. It is the especial faculty 
of quarrels and duels, and forms the ingredient of turbulence and 
tyranny, which is a nuisance in public, and a curse in private 
life. No faculty of man is more apt to run into abuse, and half 
the moral evils of man's lot spring from that abuse. The guide 
of youth cannot, therefore, too early begin to watch and repress 
its unamiable manifestations, and regulate its legitimate exer- 
cise. Under the present system of education, this important 
part of man is left to its own guidance. Need it be added, that 
it is often manifested in a form of insanity not to be mistaken ; 
the morbid self exaltation accounts for the straw crowns and 
wooden sceptres of Bedlam. The related objects of the feeling 
are obviously self and its concerns. 

l\th, Another sentiment, often but improperly confounded 
with self-love, exercises a mighty influence over man, and fur- 
nishes the key to much of the pursuit of his life ;. and that is 
desire of estimation. By the one, a man esteems himself: by 
the other, he. courts the esteem of others. They are best distin- 
guished in their abuse. The one. is pride, the other vanity ; the 
one assumes, the other^ begs ; hence it is truly remarked, that an 
individual is too proud to be vain. The use of the sentiment 
now considered, as intended by the All-Wise who endowed man 
with it, is a proper regard to character, the feeling of shame, 
and, under proper regulation, the incitement to worthy conduct 
in the love of praise. The feeling shrinks from reproach, cen- 
sure, ridicule, and exposure. It leads to a careful concealment 
of vices, follies, and weaknesses, and, better yet, often to their 
cure. The laws which enact disgraceful punishments, as pil- 
lory, address it directly. It is essentially the love of glory, 
and, in combination with self-exaltation, it constitutes ambition. 
Finally, it often runs into disease, of which any one who has 
visited a large lunatic asylum must have been rather annoyingly 
made aware, by the eager competition of the vain patients to 
detail and display to him their merits, each at the same time 
pitying his neighbour for his vain-glory. What, it may be asked, 
has education ever done to regulate this and the previous power- 
ful and all-pervading feeling 1 The answer is,-- -Nothing 1 On 



68 INFERIOR FEELINGS. 

the contrary, it has carefully instituted the means of aggravating 
the evils of both, by all the competitions, prizes, preferences, 
and " honours" of our schools and colleges. The related ob- 
ject of this feeling is found in the tendency of mankind to ob- 
serve and judge each other. 

12th, That a sentiment of fear is a part of man, no one 
will deny, and least of all the teacher of the old school, whose 
ever-brandished rod and cane make a personal appeal to the 
feeling. The sentiment is given as a self-protector from dan- 
gers, physical and moral, with which we are surrounded. Its 
abuse is cowardice, terror, and panic. The example of punish- 
ment implies our belief of its power as a motive. Its external 
objects are danger and evil in general. When diseased, it oc- 
casions the groundless fears and horrors of hypochondria, and is 
essentially that insane melancholy which furnishes the impulse 
to suicide, by sufferings far more intense than man is ever visit- 
ed with in what is erroneously distinguished as reality. 

The last and two preceding sentiments of self-love, and desire 
of estimation, evidently regard self; and, therefore, although very 
important constituent faculties in man, and intended in their pro- 
per use for the wisest ends,[have nothing in them amiable or exalted . 
They are as self-seeking as any of the nine animal propensities, 
and therefore may conveniently be classed with these, under the 
general denomination of the Inferior Feelings, to which, in the 
sequel of this work, it will often be necessary to allude. The 
whole twelve instincts make up and constitute the Scriptural 
entity of the "law in the members warring against the law in 
the mind." 

13th, That there is a law in the mind, is beautifully implied 
in the very distinction of Scripture alluded to; and it is the ob- 
ject of education, while it represses and regelates the law in the 
members, to strengthen and confirm the law in the mind. The 
first element of the law in the mind is Benevolence^ — the 
benign parent of a catalogue of graces, in kindness, desire 
of the good of others, generosity, compassion, mercy, and all 
the sympathies of brotherly love. It is the charity which 
" suffereth long and is kind," which " is gentle and easy to 
be entreated," and which, in its expansiveness and sincerity, 
" is without partiality and without hypocrisy." It is impossible 
to conceive a description of benevolence more just, as well as 
beautiful, than the Scriptural., Sentient b sings, generally, are 
related objects of this exalted sentiment, and its scope and de- 
light is their happiness. It is an error to suppose its function 
confined to compassion and relief to distress and misery. It 
goes much beyond this ; it is a well-spring of good-will to men, 
and reaps positive delight from the increase and extension of 
human happiness. Its manifestations appear to the selfish to be 



JUSTICE, TRUTH, CANDOUR. 69 

mere sentimental enthusiasm, or weak sacrifice of substance 
and ease ; yet their most exclusive joys are vapid, in compari- 
son with the delights of benevolence. Truly, as well as po- 
etically, — 

" it is twice blessed. 
It blesses him that gives and him that takes, 
'Tis mightiest in the mightiest, and becomes 
The throned monarch better than his crown." 

It is rewarded with the love of our fellow-men ; for to be gene- 
rally " liked" as it is termed, is the necessary effect of being 
benevolent; and this popularity is not confined to those who 
benefit by its generous acts, but is universal. The field of be- 
nevolence is boundless, for it embraces all that can aid or ad- 
vance human happiness, physical and moral. It desires to see 
man free, enlightened, morally and religiously elevated, and 
placed in physical comfort and safety. It descends also to kind- 
ness to the lower animals. 

Even this high sentiment is capable of abuse. This appears 
in facility, indiscriminate alms-giving, and profusion. In disease, 
it is beyond the power of the will of the individual, to whom, there- 
fore, the law. appoints a guardian. 

lith, A sentiment of justice or conscientiousness belongs to 
man ; it respects the rights of others, and is also manifested in 
truth and candour. Its deficiency is a great defect of character, 
unamended even by benevolence. The individual so endowed 
is apt to.be generous before he is just, according to an every-day 
expression. It is a mistake to recognise a defective conscien- 
tiousness in that palpable dishonesty only which calls for the 
interference of the law. It is a wide-spreading evil in society, 
far short of that degree of its manifestation. It shows itself in 
a way and manner against which the law cannot make provision, 
in the great variety of modes in which men, for selfish ends, are 
unfair to each other, by taking advantages which they would not 
give ; concealing the truth which ought to be told, or misleading 
with regard to it; disallowing others' claims, not capable of easy 
proof; shrouding others' merit ; misstating or distorting others' 
argument; resenting fair competition.; envying success; mani- 
festing a selfish jealousy ; indulging in evil-speaking and ridicule ; 
and, in a thousand ways, " doing to others that which we would 
not they should do to us." The severest satire on mankind is 
really found in the distinction conceded to the fair, open, candid, 
and considerate character, to the Aristides of his circle, who is 
marked for his whiteness, the etymology of candour, in the 
midst of the various shades of discoloration in his fellows, with 
which he is surrounded. There is not a more delicate task for 
the infant teacher — for the training must be early — than the 
exercise of the sentiment of justice and truth, not merely in its 



70 VENERATION. 

broad lines, but in its minutest shadowings. The disease of the 
feeling, for even conscientiousness may be over-excited, is ob- 
served in the melancholy self-accusatory ravings of some ma- 
niacs, especially in those too numerous cases in which religious 
terrors have driven reason from its seat. The related objects of 
the sentiment of justice are the rights and feelings of our fellow- 
men. It acknowledges the justice of God. 

15th, The most superficial observer of man cannot have failed 
to feel in himself, and observe the signs in others, of a sentiment 
of Veneration, a feeling of deference, submission, and rever- 
ence. These terms are used by us every instant of our converse 
with those we feel to be our superiors in intellect or conventional 
rank, as something that is their due ; and the whole strength of 
the feeling can be testified by those whom it has deprived of ut- 
terance when suddenly brought into the presence of majesty. 
Yet the trembler in the king's presence is not unnerved by fear, 
for his rsason assures him that he is in no personal danger; but 
"the divinity that doth hedge a king,"— Slrakspeare's graphic de- 
scription of the feeling "of homage to real or supposed superiority, 
which is a faculty or sentiment in man, — is the true cause that 

" When the king doth lnok, the subject quakes."' 

But there is a higher related object of this feelingthan earthly 
kings, The King of kings is its great end and object : it is then 
veneration, and constitutes the chief ingredient in the adoration 
of religious worship. A large natural endowment of the senti- 
ment often carries mere external sanctity to excess, and, mis- 
taking it for religion, claims, and often receives, consideration 
and homage for it, to the inconvenient crowding of the calendar. 
The feeling also runs into monomania. The author once saw a 
young man in Bethlem Hospital in St. George's Fields, who 
dropt on his knees whenever a stranger, appeared,' raised his 
eyes, united the palms of his hands, and remained ;n that devo- 
tional attitude for some time, without uttering a word. The 
misdirection of this feeling, either towards the Deity or our fel- 

* Without denying the existence of the sentiment of veneration, and 
also without subjecting himself to the charge of ultra-republicanism, the 
American reader may very reasonably question this illustration; ascrib- 
ing the deferential emotions alleged to be produced by " the presence 
of majesty," solely to the influence of education and habit, and denying 
them existence as the necessary result of the sentiment referred to. It 
would probably be difficult to establish that veneration, or- any feeling 
akin to it, is naturally excited, that is, independently of the' influence of 
education and habit, by the presence or contemplation of any accidental 
human attribute, such as power, intellect, or even goodness. A perfect- 
ly correct investigation would probably show that veneration can only 
be felt for Divinity; and that the emotion excited by conceptions of 
vastness, either of possession, extent, capacity, or performance, al-. 
though similar, apparently, is yet totally distinct, 



HOPE — FIRMNESS. 71 

low-men, is attended with so much evil, that its proper guidance 
and exercise ought to form, what it never yet has formed, an 
object of the most attentive and enlightened educational care. 

The three feelings of benevolence, justice, and veneration, pre- 
dominating over the inferior and selfish propensities, present us 
at once with an intelligible system of ethics. This is that su- 
premacy of the moral sentiments which is partially admitted by 
ethical writers, from Butler to Chalmers ; the latter, in his Bridge- 
water Treatise, constitutes conscience the sole ruler ; but benevo- 
lence is not less offended by vice and crime than justice ; while 
veneration is shocked with the daringjiisobedience to God's will 
which these aberrations involve. The three sentiments of jus- 
tice, benevolence, and veneration, are powerfully combined in 
that preceptive keystone of Christianity, " to do justly, to love 
mercy, and walk humbly with your God." The. humility so 
beautifully glanced at is that repression of self-exaltation, the 
tenth impulse I have treated of, which the instructer should 
never lose sight of; remembering that " pride was not made for 
man ;" self-love was intended for him, but not its abuse^ " which 
bringeth a snare." The energy of these three feelings, acting 
as they always do in combination, constitutes the moral impossi- 
bility of committing crime ; for a man in whom they are supreme, 
is restrained from criminal acts more effectually than if fetters 
of triple brass were on his hands. If there be means, — and it 
will appear in the sequel that there are beautifully simple and 
effectual means, — of increasing the power of these invaluable 
sentiments, by the exercise of practical moral training, does it 
not vitally concern society to apply them 1 I shall offer a few 
words more on the supremacy of the higher feelings, after treat- 
ing of the Intellect. 

16th, I claim no more for man than almost all metaphysicians 
do, and all the non-metaphysical world, in attributing to him a 
sentiment of Hope, the source of much worldly happiness, 
and the natural foundation of our prospects of a life to come. 
Hope is a chief ingredient in religious feeling; while, in com- 
mon life, it is not confined to expectations and anticipations of 
the future, but is a permanent gayety, lightness of heart, or buoy- 
ancy of spirits, which is contented with the present, dreads no 
evil, and constitutes in itself real happiness. Children, as well 
as adults, differ widely in this character of mind; an enlight- 
ened teacher of youth will convert the feeling to useful purposes. 

17 th, The teacher will find -his pupils to differ in another re- 
spect; he will meet with some of them pliant and obedient, and 
others obstinate and impracticable; there is, in different degrees, 
in man. a sentiment of Firmness, the use of which is perse- 
verance and fortitude, the abuse of which is obstinacy. It is 
of importance that this should be recognised in education as 



72 WONDER — RELIGIOUS FEELING — FANATICISM. 

an innate feeling, by which much labour to the teacher, and 
suffering to the young, might be prevented by avoiding vain con- 
tests with obstinacy, persevered in by the teacher in the expecta- 
tion of curing the defect, while he is only strengthening the 
feeling, and confirming the habit. The struggle with an ob- 
stinate child, who is farther fortified by pride and self-sufficiency, 
may be compared to an attempt to extract a nail by striking it 
on the head, every stroke only driving it faster. The judicious 
teacher will take care never to bring the matter to that issue, 
but will address himself to other faculties, especially justice, 
benevolence, and reflection ; keeping in mind the fable that the 
storm could not induce the traveller to part with his cloak, 
which he only held the faster, but the sun was more successful. 
18th, Man loves the wonderful. That the sentiment of 
Wonder is innate, will scarcely be doubted by any one who 
observes its power as a motive, and the fortunes that are made 
by appeals to it. Well does the charlatan know the effect pro- 
duced by his cry of "wonder!" It is evidently bestowed as a 
• source of delight in contemplating the wonders of creation, and 
as an impulse to inquiry. With veneration and hope, it con- 
stitutes the religious combination of faculties ; I mean what is 
called religious feeling, for conscience and reflection are the 
bases of religious duly. The joint operation, in due proportion, 
of the two sets of faculties, makes up the" perfection, humanly 
speaking of the religious character; while a separation of them 
is always more or less to be regretted. . Take away or impair re- 
flection, and the remaining feelings will be apt to run into en- 
thusiasm, and even fanaticism ; take away or diminish conscience, 
and we have the- apparent anomaly of sanctity without honesty, 
of religious excitement with much unfairness, censoriousness, 
intolerance, and -persecution. Wonder is met with in morbid 
activity; its madness sees visions, and dreams dreams, nay, 
attempts miracles ; in combination with a high estimate of self, 
it constitutes the prophet of special revelation, and the angel of 
light admitted to the counsels of heaven. Of this we have not 
to go far for examples, — the leaders and their followers are all 
over excited wondsrers. Education is called upon to watch this 
faculty; it will show itself in a child in a tendency to exagge- 
rate and embellish, a marked delight to surprise and occasion 
wonder, with often an utter sacrifice of truth to attain that end. 
19zA, I do not anticipate objection to a faculty for the sublime, the 
beautiful," the elegant, the perfect, the poetical, as a constituent of 
the mind of man. The Imagination of the metaphysicians comes 
nearest this sentiment, but it does not express it. Imagination 
is considered as a power which produces ideal creations ; — the 
feeling in question is a mere sentiment or habit of mind which 
aspires to the beautiful and perfect, and communicates an ele- 



THE LUDICROUS IMlTATION-^MORAL SENTIMENT. 73 

gant refinement to the whole character ; it prompts other faculties 
to create, while itself merely feels, and views all nature with 
associations of beauty and of poetry. Its abuse is romantic en- 
thusiasm, nnguided by reflection. Its related objects are all 
that is beautiful and sublime in nature ; it is one of the gifts of 
Divine Benevolence which points directly at high enjoyment; 
like music it is something superadded to the necessary faculties. 
When it is absenc or deficient, the individual is gross and un- 
refined. Infant education takes much care of this feeling, and 
in various ingenious ways calls it into exercise, with differ- 
ent success, according to the degree of natural endowment ; for 
in nothing do individuals differ from each other more. With 
the explanation now given, 1 shall call this faculty Imagination. 

20th. The love of the ludicrous requires a judicious educa- 
tional management. Man is the only laughing animal, the only 
one gifted with a specific enjoyment from the contemplation of 
incongruity. It is greatly abused in satire, tricks and mischief, 
and requires watching : it operates severely on many tempers 
who are made its butts, and often withers every purpose of ex- 
ertion or improvement. Certainly it has been greatly neglected 
in education. Its relative objects are found in the exhaustless 
field of incongruity. 

21st. Imitation is a marked faculty in man, which shows it- 
self even in the youngest children. Its purpose is manifestly 
to bring society to a convenient uniformity of manners, without 
which it would present a scene of inextricable contrariety, and 
to aid in educing the powers of the young, by the energy of an 
impulse to do what they see done by their seniors. It aids, as 
is most obvious, the imitative arts; and has for its related objects 
no narrower field than universal nature. 

The reader is requested to glance back at the faculties just 
treated of, beginning with 13 and ending with 21,* which like the 
animal propensities, happen to be nine in number, and oblige the 
author, by recollecting that whenever he speaks of the moral 
sentiments, he means these nine faculties. The reader will at 
once observe that Nos. 10, 11, and 12, Self-Love, desire of 
Estimation, and Fear, are not of dignity sufficient to be classed 
with the mora! sentiments; but being as selfish in their nature 
as the nine animal propensities, and being also plainly discern- 
ible in the inferior animals, they are classed with the propensi- 
ties under the general name of the inferior feelings; it fol- 
lows that the moral sentiments are meant, when the term su- 



Benevolence, 




Firmness,. 


Justice, 




Wonder,, 


Veneration, 




Imagination, 


Hope,. 


Imitation. 

7 


Love of the Ludicrous, 



74 HIGHER FEELINGS — KNOWING FACULTIES. 

perior or higher feelings is used. These last distinguish mars 
on this earth, from all the creatures of God. - 

But the "Law in the mind" would be an imperfect regulator 
of the " Law in the members," if it consisted even of the moral 
sentiments alone. Sentiments are but feelings, and feelings, 
however virtuous, are blind, and depend upon intellect for their 
proper direction. For example, benevolence prompts us to 
succour poverty; but that feeling makes no inquiry into the 
cause of that poverty which it profusely relieves. It therefore 
requires to be itself directed by another class of faculties, namely 
the intellectual, which, observing, perceiving, knowing, and 
reasoning, can ascertain, if so it be, that the poverty is the 
result of idle and profligate habits, that the poor man is perfectly 
able-bodied and fit for labour, and that therefore the benevolence 
is wasted, and worse, upon the encouragement of ah unworthy 
object. Man is endowed with intellectual faculties, and these 
may be divided into the knowing and reflecting. It is unde- 
niable that, intellectually, we know and we reflect. It is a 
common observation that knowledge is not wisdom, till it is 
compared and reasoned on by reflection. It is its combination 
with reflection, which constitutes that knowledge which is 
power. The weakest reflecting powers often co-exist in the 
same individual, with a store of knowledge which excites our 
Wonder. A walking encyclopedia is a title currently given to 
.a person who knows every thing, while his reasoning powers are 
nevertheless of the -humblest order. Nothing proves more 
demonstrably than this, that knowing and reasoning are distinct 
powers of mind. 

The knowing powers cognize two classes of objects; namely 
existences and events, in other words, things that are, and things 
that ho-ppen. Let any one reflect for a moment, and he will 
find that whatever he knows, must be either an existence or an 
event. The paper on which I write is an existence — a thing 
that is; if I drop it on the carpet, it is an event, a ihing that 
has happened, a change that has taken place : soldiers are ex- 
istences, their battle is an event ; the acid and the .alkali are 
existences, their effervescence on mixture is an event. Natural 
history concerns existences, civil history records events. Now, 
from observing that the power of perceiving and remembering 
these two classes of objects, respectively, varies in a marked de- 
gree in different individuals, we may consider them as distinct 
faculties, which will require in education a separate range of 
study and exercise, the one improving the faculty for existences, 
the other the faculty for events. I claim then, for man, — 

22(i, A POWER TO COGNIZE AND REMEMBER EXISTENCES. 
Z'Zd, A POWER TO COGNIZE AND REMEMBER EVENTS. 

It is obvious that,* to a great degree,, man enjoys these faculties 



REFLECTING POWERS. 75 

■m .common with the inferior animals, which last could not exist 
without a considerable degree of perception and memory, both 
of things that are and things that happen. These two faculties 
are most active in childhood and youth, possess a keen appetite 
for knowledge, and reap so much delight from its attainment, 
that an instructer, himself well endowed with knowledge, and 
distinguished by a lively and exciting manner of communication, 
who can keep alive wonder, and put into his lessons a fine ad- 
mixture of the higher feelings, will possess 'a power over his 
pupil's will and happiness, which will form, and it is already 
known to form, a striking contrast to the heart-withering irk- 
someness of the old schools, in which an antiquated and most 
hurtful system of appeal to the inferior feelings of fear, self- 
exaltation, vanity, and eovetousness, is found necessary to 
stimulate the languid faculties. The knowing faculties are 
capable of great educational improvement, and, by judicious ex- 
ercise, often arrive at such a degree of comprehension, minute- 
ness, and accuracy, called cleverness and acumen, as to give 
great practical power in life, and to le;idto discovery and inven- 
tion which extend indefinitely the range of human attainment. 
We can now understand the mode of activity called attention ; 
it is the tension or active employment of the knowing faculties 
when in act of observation. The young must' be called upon to 
observe, and that extensively and minutely: the educated know 
well how little was done for them in this exercise, when they 
were engaged exclusively in reading books, and dreamingly 
passing over the whole of existing things, though before their 
very eyes- In the lower elasses of the people, observation re- 
mains utterly dormant, and much of the suffering of their con- 
dition is the consequence. The related objects of these two 
knowing powers ate Creadon and Creation's changes; their 
scope is unbounded. 

There are other knowing faculties, of marked distinction in 
the different degrees of manifestation by different individuals, 
which aid in the acquisition of knowledge ; such as a perceptive 
power for each quality of matter, as its form, size, colour, gravi- 
tation, sound, &c. and on these the talents of drawing, painting, 
sculpture, mechanics, and music depend. But these manifesta- 
tions, must, be so obvious to the enlightened and judicious edu- 
cationist, that I shall not occupy time and space with a detail of 
them. 

• The reflecting powers suffer a twofold division, like the 
knowing, and we find individuals manifesting these powers 
differently, according to that division. The reflecting make use 
of the materials stored by the knowing faculties, for the, pur- 
pose of performing the operation of reasoning, — that consists in 
©emparing two existences or two events, and concluding that 



76 COMPARISON — NECESSARY CONSEQUENCE. 

something else exists, existed, or will or may exist, or that 
something else happens, happened, or will or may happen, in 
consequence ; in which range arc comprehended all the truths 
of the physical and moral world. 

24th, The process of reasoning, of conclusion drawing, is 
sometimes performed by a simple act of comparison, or percep- 
tion of analogy : a vast majority of mankind reason in this way ; 
such a truth follows from the resemblance of two truths which 
they have compared. The whole of the brilliant field of what 
in reasoning is called illustration is nothing more than this 
process of comparison; and, as many writers and speakers, and 
these like Dr. Chalmers by far the most popular, -manifest , al- 
most an exclusive preference for analogical and illustrative 
reasoning, I feel that I am warranted in distinguishing in man, 
the reflecting faculty of comparison. 

25th, Some reasoners, but comparatively few, are more severe, 
and are contented with no conclusions which do not stand in the 
relation of necessary consequence to their premises. This is 
truth, they reason, because it is deducible necessarily from the 
consideration of these other known truths brought together. 
These are the logicians who distrust analogy and comparison. 
The faculty they use is the highest intellectual power, the per- 
cipient of the relation of cause and effect, which I beg to be in- 
dulged in designating by the name of the faculty of neces- 
sary consequences. When the distinct operation of the two 
mentioned faculties is understood by the instructer of youth, the 
different lines of talent will be obvious to him, and the educa- 
tional training will be made to correspond. 

It is a metaphysical error to distinguish Memory as a primi- 
tive faculty, seeing that the cognizing and reasoning powers 
must necessarily be the remembering powers ; remembrance 
being nothing else but the continued impression of cognition and 
reasoning, varying according to the energy of those powers. If 
memory were a distinctive power, it would, in each individual, 
be alike strong, and regard all, subjects of recollection alike. But 
as this is not consistent with fact, as one individual remembers 
existences, and another forgets existences and remembers events, 
while a third recalls with ease a train of reasoning, another mu-r 
sical airs, and another the faces of persons he has seen, or the 
scenes he has surveyed, each perhaps weakly remembering 
something else of the matters now enumerated, we are forced 
to the conclusion, that there is no general faculty called meaioify, 
but that each faculty has its own power of recalling its impres- 
sions. The instructer of youth should ponder this truth well, 
and he will save himself and his pupil much time and labour in 
indefinite and desultory exercise of a supposed general faculty of 
memory, when in truth he will actually improve the memory of 






LANGUAGE — TABULAR VIEW. 77 

each faculty in the proper direct cultivation of the faculty 
itself. 

The reader is, it is trusted, now in a condition to see the pro- 
priety of disallowing Perception as a primitive faculty. Both 
the knowing and reflective percipient powers have now been ex- 
plained and distinguished : the faculty of existences perceives ex- 
istences, that of events events ; that of comparison, resemblances ; 
that of necessary consequence, cause and effect ; so that a general 
'faculty of perception is necessarily a nonentity. 

Last of all, I claim for man, whose composition we have now 
finished, the man-distinguishing faculty of language, whereby 
he converts his thoughts into the conventional signs called 
words, and, in oral and written discourse, excites the faculties 
of his fellow men in the boundless extent'of social intercourse. 
Language is a mighty instrument, but great evil follows the 
error of mistaking it for more. 

Once more, before proceeding farther, the reader is requested 
to subject the foregoing analysis to the strictest scrutiny. He 
is not asked to surrender the catalogue of faculties which may 
be dear to him as associated with the venerable name of Alma 
Mater ; he is welcome to reserve that for the amusement of his 
metaphysical hours; all that is now asked is, that he will admit, 
or at least not deny, that the feelings, impulses, or faculties, just 
submitted to his consideration, have been recognised by him in 
that being called Man. 

The whole faculties which have been described, are now 
•brought under the reader's eye in a table for the convenience , of 
■reference :— 

INFERIOR FEELINGS. 

ANIMAL PROPENSITIES. 

-Propensity of Food. Propensity to Conceal. 

Sex. ...... .... Acquire. 

Offspring. Construct. 

Attachment Sentiment of Self-Love. 

to Fight. Desire of Estimation 

..... .... Destroy, Fear. 

HIGHER FEELINGS. 

MORAL SENTIMENTS. 

Sentiment of Benevolence.' Sentiment , of Wonder. 1 

Justice. ...... ..... Imagination. 

Veneration. ..... The Ludicrous,. 

Hope. ,„,.,... Imitation, 

Firmness. 



78 FACULTIES POSSESSED BY ALL* 

INTELLECT. 

Knowing- Faculties. Reflecting Faculties. 

Cognition af Existences. Comparison. 

events. Necessary Consequence. 

Percipients of Form, Colour, 

Sound, tifc. Language. 

Several general points require a moment's attention. 1. All the 
faculties in the preceding table belong to every sane individual 
of the human race ; the want of any of them would be the imper- 
fection of partial idiocy. 2. They are possessed in very differ- 
ent degrees of endowment in different individuals. It is this 
difference which constitutes the endless varieties in the charac- 
ters of men. Taking the faculties in groups, it is evident that 
individuals in whom the inferior feelings predominate, will be 
coarse, sensual, and animal ; while those in whom the higher 
feelings are the strongest, will be moral and refined. In each in- 
dividual, some faculty, or combination of faculties, is always so 
powerful as to mark the character; and observation and discus- 
sion of these characterizing peculiarities, in each other, are half 
the business of human intercourse. Any one could, on a very- 
short notice, furnish a catalogue of the characteristics of his ac- 
quaintances, and that according to the order of the foregoing 
table. A, he would say, is a perfect gourmand ; B is abstemious 
and sober; C cannot bear children ; D should hire himself for a 
nursery-maid ; E is argumentative, contentious,violent, and pas- 
sionate, F is as gentle and forbearing as a lamb ; G is reserved, 
cunning, and artful, H is open as the day ; I is avaricious and 
miserly ; K is proud ; L is vain ; M is a coward ; - N is humble and 
diffident, and shrinks from notice; O is benevolent; but P is 
generous and almost profuse ; while R is cold hearted; S is just 
and true ; T is ignorant ; U is an encyclopedia ; V is profound 
and logical ; W cannot put two ideas together, and draw a con- 
clusion from their comparison ; X has a turn for the fine arts ; 
Y excels in mechanics ; Z has a gift of language, so copious and 
fluent, that his thoughts form themselves into words with the 
precision and beauty of a crystallization. 

3. It must occur to the reader, and he is requested to remem- 
ber it as a fundamental truth, that these characteristics of indi- 
viduals arise from innate faculties, which are permanent, and, 
however improvable, not liable to be eradicated. The facul- 
ties modify each other, but the general character is fixed. The 
irascible man of to-day was so twenty years ago; so was the 
selfish, — though higher feelings cultivated render the conduct of 
the one milder and of the other more liberal. 

4. Another point is to be kept in mind by the reader that the 



BANK OF THE FACULTIES. 79 

human faculties are capable of acting in combination with each 
other, at least of simultaneous activity ; the effect of which 
will be an increased tendency to a common end when the fa- 
culties acting are in harmony; or a modification of power, so 
that the balance in favour of the strongest will be the remain- 
ing force, when they antagonize each other. This is the state 
of what is called mixed motives, which scarcely needs, illustra- 
tion. In a public subscription for a charity, for example, Be- 
nevolence prompts to give, and often much more strongly does 
vanity ; but their united operation manifestly strengthens the 
impulse ; self-love and avarice would save the money. Now , it 
it is perfectly obvious, that it will be given or withheld, accord- 
ing as one combination or the other prevails. Other examples 
might be supplied, but "they can be easily figured. It is plain 
that what is called individual character must essentially be the 
product of a sort of balance of power among all the faculties ; 
the strongest will stand out most prominent, as " the ruling 
passion," modified by others, and therefore only presenting it- 
self as a remainder. Thus a man has a powerful impulse of 
courage, and a thirst for glory, which would urge him on " to 
seek the bubble reputation even in the cannon's mouth,-" but hd 
is also endowed with a cautious fear of wounds and death, the 
result of whose operation will be a certain deduction from his 
rash gallantry, and a practical feeling that " the better part of 
valour is discretion." He is still a man for the cannon's mouth, 
but he will never go there but when influenced by a prudent 
sense of duty. It is needless to push so obvious an inquiry far- 
ther. It must be manifest that education should address itself 
pointedly to these combinations. 

5. The last general observation which requires to be made 
will at once be admitted, that there are degrees of value and 
rank in the faculties of man. It is a law of our nature to look 
upon the moral sentiments with more respect than the animal 
propensities ; while the profound powers of reflection and rea- 
soning are more elevated than the acutest faculties of observa- 
tion. When superiority involves control, it is called suprema- 
cy ; this control is exercised by the moral faculties, guided by 
the intellect, which is another word for ethics. And this con- 
trol is properly called the Supremacy of the Moral Senti- 
ments and Intellect. 

No writer has thrown so much light upon this important sub- 
ject, as Mr. Combe, in his " Constitution of Man." He says, 
(p. 39.) " Every faculty stands in a definite relation to cer- 
tain external objects ; when it is internally active it desires these 
objects ; when they are presented to it, they excite it to activity 
and delight it with agreeable emotions. Human happiness and 
misery are resolvable into the gratification or denial of one or 



80 BASELESS FRIENDSHIP. 

more of our active faculties, before described, of the external 
senses, and the feelings connected with our bodily frame. The 
faculties in themselves are mere instincts ; the moral senti- 
ments and intellect are higher instincts than the animal pro- 
pensities. Every faculty is good in itself, but all are liable to 
abuse : their manifestations are rignt only when directed by en- 
lightened intellect and moral sentiment. In maintaining the 
supremacy of the moral sentiments and intellect, I do not con- 
sider them sufficient to direct conduct by their mere instinctive 
suggestions. To fit them to discharge this important duty, they 
'must be illuminated by knowledge of science and of moral 
and religious duty ; but wherever their dictates, thus enlighten- 
ed, oppose the solicitations of the propensities, the latter must 
•yield, otherwise, by the constitution of external nature, evil will 
inevitably ensue. This is what I mean by nature being constitut- 
ed in harmony with the supremacy of the moral sentiments and 
•intellect." 

I am not acquainted with any thing more delightfully in- 
structive than the twenty four pages which follow the extract 
•just given. In these Mr. Combe illustrates the principle of the 
regulating power of the moral sentiments and intellect, by 
showing its application to several of the most important affairs 
of life ; for example, the principle, if acted on, would prevent 
the domestic propensities from blindly allying themselves, in 
marriage with an unworthy object. It would prevent the for- 
mation of rash friendships, which, founded on fashion, or any 
other form of selfishness, have no solid foundation, and end, if 
fortune changes, in mutual reproaches and charges of insinceri- 
ty. The contrast of the heyday of Sheridan's reputation, which 
-surrounded him with friends who vainly boasted of his acquaint- 
ance, and the closing scene of his deserted deathbed, is given as 
an example. Again, the principle, if it did not prevent their 
formation, would at least show that there is no cause for wonder 
when partnerships, entered into for mutual gain, fall to pieces 
in consequence of bad success, or some other excitement *of 
selfishness. After several other examples of false and baseless 
reliance on the inferior feelings-, Mr. Combe points out the delight 
and permanence of alliances and connexions formed under the guid- 
ance of the higher feelings and the intellect, in which not only 
these are delighted after their own pure and exalted nature, but 
the inferior feelings themselves are gratified in their proper and 
legitimate way, so that all the faculties are in harmony with each 
other. I cannot withhold the concluding passage on this sub- 
ject. " By this illustration, the reader will understand more 
clearly what I mean by the harmony of the faculties. The 
fashionable and commercial friendships, of which I spoke, 
gratified the lower feelings, but left out, as fundamental prin- 



INDEPENDENT OPERATION OF NATURA.L LAWS. 81 

ciples, all the higher sentiments : there was therefore a want of 
harmony in these instances; an absence of full satisfaction; an 
uncertainty and changeableness which gave rise to only a mix- 
ed and imperfect enjoyment while the friendship lasted, and to a 
feeling of painful disappointment, and of vanity and vexation', 
when a rupture occurred. The error, in such cases, consists in 
founding attachment on the lower faculties, seeing they, by 
themselves, are not calculated to form a stable basis of affec- 
tion ; instead of building it on them and the higher sentiments, 
which afford a foundation for real, lasting, and satisfactory 
friendships. In complaining of the vanity and vexation of at- 
tachments springing from the lower faculties exclusively, we 
are like men who should try to build a pyramid on its smaller 
end, and then lament the hardness of their fate, and speak of 
the unkindness of Providence, when it fell. A similar analy- 
sis of all other pleasures founded on the animal propensities 
chiefly, would give similar results. In short, happiness must be 
viewed by men as connected inseparably with the exercise of the 
three great classes of faculties, the moral sentiments and intel- 
lect exercising the directing and controlling sway, before it can 
be permanently attained." 

This chapter cannot be more appropriately concluded, than 
by calling the attention of the educationist to the light which he 
will find thrown on the moral government of the world, by the 
recognition as true to nature, of the faculties of man, as now pro- 
pounded, and their relative objects. It is the main design of 
Mr. Combe's " Constitution of Man ; " to demonstrate the founda- 
tion of that government. He distinguishes the laws of nature 
into Physical, Organic, and Moral, and shows thai if man does not 
yield obedience to these laws, evil, even in this life, will be the 
consequence. 

1st, He has shown — and he is entitled to the high distinction 
of having been the first to show — that the natural laws ope- 
rate independently of each other ; that each requires obe- 
dience to itself, and in its own specific way, rewards obedience, 
and punishes disobedience, and that human beings are happy 
precisely in proportion to the degree of their obedience, or to the 
degree in which they place themselves in accordance with these 
the Divine institutions. For example, an individual who neg- 
lects or carelessly observes the corresponding physical law of 
nature, will be drowned, or burnt, or crushed, or fractured, or 
lacerated, and that inevitably, however strictly he may obey the 
moral laws, even to the extent of the utmost reach of human 
virtue. Again if he obeys the organic laws, he will reap bodily 
health, which is the specific reward of that obedience, nor will 
any degree of moral turpitude (if he avoid sensual excess, which 
i3 a breach of the organic as well as the moral laws), materially 



>B2 HARMONY BETWEEN MAN AND NATURE. 

diminish his health. But his moral defects will "bring their 
•own punishment ; and, from these his health of body will not 
protect him. This principle affords a key to much that appears 
inscrutable in the moral government of this world. Whatever 
man may be permitted to hope with regard to another, he must 
study and obey the laws which regulate this world, else no de- 
gree of piety and worth will save him from the evils which follow 
neglect of the physical and organic laws; while no compliance 
with these last will shield him from moral suffering, if he contemns 
the moral laws. Whenever w r e get the principle of the inde- 
pendent operation of the different departments of the natural laws, 
the apparent confusion oflife is explained, and we see why the 
bad man often prospers externally in this world, and the good 
mau is overwhelmed with misfortune ; — I say externally, for the 
bad man cannot reap higher enjoyment than physical and organ- 
ic, while, at the same time, he suffers all the penalties of a low 
morality. On the other hand, the good and pious man, how- 
ever physically and organically afflicted, is compensated, even 
here, with the direct consolations of virtue and religion. But 
the kind of happiness enjoyed, or misery suffered, will be found 
invariably to result to each character directly and separately, 
and without the possibility of interference of any of the others, 
from the specific law or laws obeyed or contemned. This theory 
of the independent operation of the different classes of the laws 
•of nature, which is itself sufficient, when practically applied to 
the affairs of man to work a momentous change in his condition 
in the present world, is not, it is believed, to be found in any 
previous author, and therefore belongs to Mr. Combe. 

2d, Although many writers have partially shown, and more 
have conjectured, that there is a certain harmony between the 
constitution of external nature and the constitution of man, Mr. 
Combe has been the first to demonstrate this harmony as an all per- 
vading principle of creation, and a perfect and beautifully symme- 
trical system. In order to perceive the wise relation of the natu- 
ral laws to the human constitution in body and mind, both these 
related objects must be understood. On the one hand, the laws, 
physical, organic, and moral, must be observed, and their inde- 
pendent operation demonstrated ; and on the other, the mind of 
man, as well as his body, must be known ; yet that knowledge, 
according to Mr. Stewart, was down to his time, " yet in expec- 
tation." Mr. Combe has adopted the faculties which have now 
been detailed, as primitive in man, and comparing these with 
external nature and nature's laws, he at once saw and made plain 
to his countrymen and the world, the perfect correspondence and 
harmony which were the eternal design of an omnipotent Creator. 

3d, The same gifted writer has shown, that while each natu- 
ral law acts separately, there is a beautiful combination in their 



CONSTITUTION OF WORLD FAVOURS VIRTUE. 06 

action, having for its object the cultivation of the moral and intel- 
lectual powers of man, and the establishment of their supremacy 
over the animal propensities ; in other words, that the world 

IS ACTUALLY ARRANGED ON THE PRINCIPLE OF FAVOURING VIRTUE 
AND PUNISHING VICE, AND THAT IT IS THROUGHOUT ITS CONSTITU- 
TION, FRAMED IN ADMIRABLE ADAPTATION TO THE FACULTIES OF 
MAN AS A MORAL, INTELLIGENT, AND RELIGIOUS !BEING. ' This sub- 
lime truth had not escaped previous observation. Bishop Butler 
felt it as an impression on his virtuous mind, but failed to esta- 
blish its universality on demonstrable evidence. The name 
of George Combe must be associated, — and already is extensive- 
ly associated in the four quarters of the globe, — with the demon- 
strated and completed system; which, by bringing into one point 
of view, the different constituent elements of the human consti- 
tution, and showing their relations to each other and external 
nature, enables us to explain many of the phenomena of human 
life with a simplicity and success which remind us of the light 
thrown upon the phenomena of the heavens by the principia of 
Newton. Systems of Truth are the work of God : it is the highest 
reach of human intellect, humbly to observe and expound them; 
and, with a mind enlarged and heart improved by the Moral 
Revelation which teems in the oracles of his works, to learn and 
apply to life and conduct the Oracles of his Word, — the one a 
republication, as has been sublimely and truly said, of the other. 
" Wherefore," says the enlightened and pious Melancthon, 
" wherefore our decision is this, that those precepts which Jearn- 
ed men have committed to writing, transcribing them from the 
common reason and common feelings of human nature, are to be 
accounted as not less Divine, than those contained in the tables 
given to Moses ; and that it could not be the intention of our 
Maker to supersede, by a. law graven upon stone, that which is 
written with his own finger on the table of the heart."* 

* I should have observed earlier, that Mr. Combe has published 
three lectures on Popular Education, delivered in October, at the re- 
quest of the Edinburgh Association for Useful and Entertaining Science. 
In these he has brought his views of Man and Nature into the most 
satisfactory practical application. 



84 



CHAPTER IT.. 



ON EDUCATION AS ADAPTED TO THE FACULTIES — INFANT 
EDUCATION. 



Faculties improvable — Man, how matle wiser, how better — Law of ex- 
ercise of faculties— Each faculty on its own objects — Exercise of one 
faculty does not improve another — Faculties that require regulation,, 
excitement, direction of intellect — Loadstar of education — Pupil's 
study of his own faculties, and their objects — Education, Physical, 
Moral, Intellectual — Infant Education, to commence in the cradle — 
Infant school, Physical training, Moral, Intellectual — Real and ver- 
bal — Pestalozzi and Mayo — Lessons on Objects — Summary of edu- 
cation of faculties — Edinburgh Model Infant School — Religious im- 
pressions, no distinction of sects, preparative — Agency of Man in 
this— Divine blessing — Intolerance deprecated — Edinburgh Infant 
School on liberal basis — Progress and success of the school — Prizes 
and, places — Great merit of Wilderspin — Prejudices against Infant 
education, objections answered. 



That each sane individual possesses all the faculties which 
have been enumerated, though in different degrees of endow- 
ment, is not more true than. that, in the faculties of every indi- 
vidual above the intellectual and moral grade of idiocy, there is 
some degree of improy ability ;— some capacity of increase of 
strength in the moral and intellectual powers, and regulation in 
the animal propensities. All education is imperfect in the de- 
gree in which it falls short of attaining these ends* In its most 
general view, education is intended to make men wiser and 
better, in other words, to improve them intellectually and morally. 
But this is too vague a generality for practical purposes. The 
practice must be direct operation on the various faculties, the 
improved direction and agency of which constitute wisdom and 
goodness. 

Men are made wiser by the acquisition of knowledge and the 
habit of reflection ; while they are made better by the improve- 
ment of their moral sentiments. It follows, that the observing 
faculties must be actively exercised, is the perception and memo- 
ry of existences and events; and the reflecting powers habituated 



LAW OP EXERCISE UNIVERSAL. 8^ 

to extensive comparison and logical deduction. Industrial skill 
again depends on the increased activity of the mechanical facul- 
ties, and all the powers by which matter and its qualities and 
conditions are cognized. Moral worth is a general term for 
several particulars, which particulars must regulate the actual 
moral and religious training ofthe individual, The faculty of Con- 
science is, in its activity, essentially the moral worth of" Justice, 
Benevolence, of brotherly love, and the exhaustless impulse to do 
good to our fellow men and the whole sentient creation, while 
Veneration must be directly exercised as the moral worth of 
piety, and the duty and delight of love and obedience to God. 
The improvement of these faculties by direct operation on each, 
is the only notion we can form of moral and religious training. 

Each and every faculty must be positively exercised, to 
be iMPROVEd. Preceptive inculcation is notoriously insufficient 
to give mechanical skill ; in actual life it is never relied on, but 
the apprentice-hand is, for a course of years, set to the work. 
The same practice is required for the observing and reflecting 
faculties ; they must themselves work in a long course of active 
practice, to reap the reward of talent. In the moral faculties, 
exercise is not less essential. As well may we rest contented 
with saying to the destitute, the hungry, and the naked, " be ye 
clothed and fed," without offering them the actual means, as to 
our moral pupil, " be ye kind, compassionate, generous, be ye 
just and true, be ye pious," without exercising them in these 
graces. An apprentic ship — a long apprenticeship to justice, 
and mercy, and piety, is as essential to the practical exercise oi 
these, as it is to skill in handicraft trades. The Law of Exercise 
is of universal application. It is a fundamental law of na- 
ture, that all the capacities of man are enlarged and strengthened 
by being used. From the energy of a muscle, up to the highest 
faculty, intellectual or moral, repeated exercise of the function 
increases its intensity. The efficiency of the blacksmith's right 
arm and the philosopher's brain depends upon the same law. 
The bodily force, the senses, the observing and reasoning facul- 
ties, the moral feelings, can only be improved by habitual exer- 
cise. Custom, habit, skill, address, nay, virtue itself, are all the 
fruits of exercise, and come not without it. It is amazing how 
inconsiderably this great truth is practically acted upon in edu- 
cation ; its use in moral training is a discovery of yesterday, and 
is yet recognised only to the most limited extent. Its efficiency 
in intellectual improvement is likewise only beginning to be un- 
derstood ; in short, it has only been in the capabilities of the hand 
and the limbs, which necessity teaches even the savage must 
be exercised to attain skill, that the law of exercisehas been 
recognised in practice. The savage puts into his infant son's 

8 



86 EACH FACULTY ON ITS OWN OBJECTS. 

hands the bow and arrow and the sling, and keeps him at severe 
and persevering trial for years ; he throws him into the water to 
train him to swim, and accustoms his limbs to run, leap, and 
climb, by long practice. The mechanic puts the tool and the 
material into the hands of his pupil, and sets him to work, well 
knowing that his progress were hopeless from mere verbal ex- 
planations. He might advance a certain way by example, "by 
seeing how his master worked, and he will do so, at the same 
time that he receives verbal instruction, over and above practi- 
cal exercise ; the whole three appliances are requisite: but the 
verbal explanation, the precept alone will do nothing; with ex- 
ample added, it will do a little ; but by the three means of pre- 
cept, example, and exercise, combined, the end is completely 
gained. Now, there is no exception of any faculty from this 
law. Kindness and compassion are enlarged only by a long 
course of actual practice of kindness and compassion; while 
Justice is strengthened by. the habit of fairness and candour, 
just as much as shoemaking is improved by shoemaking. 

Inseparable from the very idea of exercising the faculties, and 
of course from the practice of that exercise, is the requisite of 
exercising each faculty upon the objects which, as has already 
been shown, nature points out as related to it. Muscular 
strength is to be gained by familiarizing the muscles with the 
resistance of external forces, and by the habit of conquering me- 
chanical difficulties, varied to exercise all the muscles, which 
amount to several hundreds in the human frame. The senses 
are improved by long and particular training, applying each to 
its own object ; sight, by habitual looking at distant or minute 
objects, a talent of great value at sea, and in war; hearing, by 
acute practice in the perception of sounds ; taste, in the discrimi- 
nating use of the palate, as in wine-tasters, two of whom detect- 
ed an iron key attached to a leather thong in a cask of wine, t be 
one perceiving in the wine the taste of iron, and the other of 
leather. The savage acts upon this principle ; he does not con- 
tent himself with telling his son the advantages of long and 
minute sight and acute hearing, but he exercises his eyes and 
ears, by many ingenious devices. In the very same manner, 
the observing faculties are rendered acute and diversified^ by the 
constant practice of accurate observation of details in existing 
objects and their qualities, and of passing events. It will after- 
ward appear, that no exercise is less understood, or more par- 
tially and imperfectly practised, than that of observation. The 
reasoning faculties, again, are enlarged and invigorated by long 
didactic practice, by familiarity with premises and logical se- 
quence, and by many an essay of comparison and illustration. 
Language is rendered copious and fluent by direct practice in 



ONE FACULTY DOES NOT IMPROVE ANOTHER. 87 

clothing thoughts with words. The same law extends into the 
moral world. For the exercise of Justice the pupil must be 
made aware of his own and his neighbour's rights, and be habit- 
uated, practically, to respect them in all contingencies. For 
the exercise of Benevolence, the habit of repressing the selfish 
feelings, and of actually doing good, kind, compassionate, and 
generous things, not by fits, but as a steady, unvarying principle 
of action, will be found indispensable ; while for practical piety, 
the attributes of God, and the wonders of creation, with all their 
benevolent purposes — the whole power, and wisdom, and good- 
ness, of the Creator, must, by exercise of all the faculties to 
which these are addressed, be contemplated practically, exten- 
sively, and habitually, in order to found that pious gratitude and 
love, through which, the truths of Revelation itself touch the 
heart and influence the conduct. 

It is another vital practical truth, forming a corollary to the 
last, that the exercise of one faculty will only improve that 
faculty, and is not adapted to improve any other. Nothing has 
more retarded education than ignorance and disregard of this 
great principle. It would be as reasonable to attempt to sharp- 
en the hearing by exercising the eyes, or the touch by the smell, 
as to improve reflection by simple observation, or, either, by 
learning languages; while all of these may be carried to the ut- 
most pitch of human attainment, and yet justice remain defec- 
tive, the heart cold and selfish, and the sentiment of piety almost 
non-existent. The evils of the practical disbelief or ignorance 
of this truth, which we find existing in the most learned men, are 
only beginning to be suspected. 

Some of the impulses require less the exercise of activity, 
than the habit of restraint ; or rather of regulation ; for the All- 
wise has given to man no faculty whatever to be utterly sup- 
pressed. In this His whole work is good. The lowest animal 
propensities have the dignity of utility, and adaptation to their 
end, worthy of-their great Contriver ; and it is to libel his work to 
hold them up to reprobation, as some well-meaning but unreflect- 
ing religionists are apt to do, as proofs of innate human depra- 
vity ; there is no evil but in their abuse ; it is, therefore requisite 
that they should be restrained within the bounds of utility ; there 
is no need to increase their activity. But the moral sentiments act 
much more feebly in themselves, and are too often overborne by 
the preponderating power of animal propensities; it is, there- 
fore, of the very essence of education, to strengthen them by 
exercise, and to bring to their aid the whole power of the in- 
tellect. It has been already said that all the feelings, animal and 
moral, are blind impulses., and require the direction of the intellect ; 
the latter must be taught habitually to allay itself with the moral 
sentiments, to direct them aright, and, in combination with them 
acting upon the animal impulses, to keep these to their legitimate 



88 pupil's study of faculties and objects. 

uses. For example, the animal propensity of the love of money 
would prompt a debtor to withhold payment of his debt, by the 
force of that blind selfish feeling ; Conscience, as a moral sen- 
timent, would be wounded by such an act; Reflection would 
point out the consequences to character, and the futility of the 
attempt; and Conscience and Reflection together would master 
the withholding propensity, and the debt would be paid. The 
inferior feeling of Fear, would impel even the patriot warrior to 
fly from the battle ; for the bravest fear wounds and death ; but 
better feelings, which need not be enumerated, antagonize the 
dastard purpose, and reflection coming to their aid, he meets the 
danger with heroism, and overcomes it. These are farther ex- 
amples of the supremacy of the moral sentiments and intellect? 
over the animal propensities, explained in the preceding chap- 
ter; and as upon this principle creation is constituted, it ought 
to be the load-star of education, which therefore cannot be too 
early or earnestly pressed upon the attention. 

But, to enable the pupil to comprehend and act upon the princi- 
ple of the supremacy of the moral sentiments and intellect, he must 
be early and habitually, as a point of knowledge, made acquaint- 
ed with the animal propensities, moral sentiments and intellect, 
as elements of his own nature; in other words, he must know 
and distinguish the various human faculties, with their relative 
value and their respective objects. If I have correctly enumera- 
ted certain powers or feelings which belong to man, it is obvious 
that the earlier the pupil knows that these powers or feelings 
belong to his nature, the sooner he will know how to exercise 
them aright. It did no harm to reserve the unpractical metaphy- 
sics, hitherto called the science of mind, for the study pi man- 
hood, as an intricate and abstract curiosity upon which much 
talent has been wasted : but whenever the study of mind is ren- 
dered practical, as it ought to be, its constitution should be made 
known to the pupil as early as his intellect is fitted to receive it. 
It will aid him in his future progress, moral and intellectual, 
just as a knowledge of his tools aids the operations of the me- 
chanic. Accustomed, as he ought to be, to trace his own and his 
fellows, motives and acts to their sources in the faculties, and to 
appreciate these motives according as they flow from the higher 
or the lower feelings, he will acquire a nice discrimination of 
human affairs in all their shades and varieties; and, aware of 
the rank and value of the faculties in operation in any act, the 
abuses to which they are liable, and the evils resulting from these 
abuses, he will have an additional guard upon his whole life, 
unknown to those who use their faculties as it were empirically, 
and, ignorant of the instruments they employ, and the principles 
of their operation, are good and wise by the fits and starts of 
natural impulse alone. 

When we have got the principle that education should har- 



PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 89 

monize with the bodily constitution and the mental faculties, by- 
imparting a knowledge of these, of their relation to external ob- 
jects, and of the mental faculties to each other, and by exercis- 
ing each mental faculty upon its own objects we have got a test 
of easy and universal application, a standard which will not de- 
sert us, so long as we do not leave it. Considering the bodily 
powers, and the division of the faculties into animal, moral and 
intellectual, it is self-evident that education will divide itself into 
Physical, Moral and Intellectual. 

By Physical Education is meant the improvement of the 
bodily powers and functions. There is much useful instruction 
in medical writers on this subject; but, from this very circum- 
stance, not only its theory but its practical application is too 
much held to be a medical more than a popular object, and there- 
fore is apt to be lost sight of altogether. This is a great error; 
the physician may be required to direct the cure of actual disease, 
but the conditions of preserving health and preventing disease 
are in our own hands, and depend upon our knowledge of them. 
This is not the place to impart that knowledge, but only to urge 
the necessity of its being imparted, and of the teacher of youth 
being qualified to impart it, so that the pupil should not only ac- 
quire the habit of a judicious attention to health, in the different 
and very simple requisites of air, temperature, clothing, diet, 
sleep, cleanliness, all as concerning himself, but should be able 
to apply his knowledge to the treatment of the infant of which 
he may become the parent. This last office concerns particularly 
the other sex. The physical education of the infant necessarily 
begins at birth, and the mother, and all employed about it, 
should not only be disabused of all gossip absurdities, such as 
swathing, rocking, and the like, but should know and apply as 
a matter of easy practice, certain rules as to temperature and 
clothing, avoiding cold and too much heat, — attention to the 
skin, and ablution from tepid water gradually to eooler, but 
never cold till a more advanced period, — food, from the mother's 
milk, to other aliments, — air, — light, — sleep — exercise, with 
avoidance of all positions and premature movements hurtful to 
the limbs the spine and the joints, — dentition, &e. 

This care will occupy two years, when the child, quite able to 
walk alone, will commence a course of exeicise in which he 
will have more to do himself than is done for him. His 
habits ought still to be well watched and judiciously directed, in 
all the matters of air, exercise, food, sleep, cleanliness, clothing, 
temperature, &c, and the advantages of attention to these so 
strongly and practically impressed upon himself, as to become a 
permanent habit for life — a maniere d'etre, the contrary of which 
would be an annoyance and deprivation. Temperance and 
moderation in all excitements, should be inculcated and practised, 
8* 



90 moral education — intellectual. 

sedentary employment should be relieved by regular daily ex- 
ercise in the open air, and that so contrived by judicious gymnas- 
tics as to exercise and strengthen all the muscles. Health maybe 
benefited by the useful exercise of judicious manual labour in 
the open air. On the whole, physical education will depend on 
knowledge of physiology, of the parts of the body and their 
functions, which, as will appear in the sequel, should form a part 
of education.* 

Moral Education embraces both the animal and moral im- 
pulses ; it regulates, as has already been shown, the former and 
strengthens the latter. Whenever gluttony, indelicacy, violence, 
cruelty, greediness, cowardice, pride, insolence, vanity, or any 
mode of selfishness show themselves in the individual under 
training, one* and all must be repressed with the most watchful 
solicitude,and the most skilful treatment. Repression may at 
first fail to be accomplished unless by severity, but the instructer, 
sufficiently enlightened in the faculties, will, the first practicable 
moment, drop the coercive system, and awaken and appeal power- 
fully to the higher faculties of conscience and benevolence, and to 
the powers of reflection. This done with kindness, in other words, 
with a marked manifestation of benevolence itself, will operate 
with. a power, the extent of which, in education, is yet to a very 
limited extent, estimated. In the very exercise of the superior 
faculties the inferior are indirectly acquiring a habit of restraint 
and regulation; for it is morally impossible to cultivate the su- 
perior faculties without a simultaneous, though indirect regula- 
lation of the inferior. 

Intellectual Education imparts knowledge and improves 
reflective power, by exercising the proper faculties upon their 
proper objects. Moral training, strictly distinguished, is a 
course of exercise in moral feeling and moral acting ; yet, from 
the nature of the faculties, moral and intellectual exercise must 
proceed together, the highest aim and end of intellectual im- 
provement being moral elevation, which is the greatest happi- 
ness in this lite, and an important preparation for a future. Yet 
nature and necessity point to an earlier appliance of direct moral 
than direct intellectual training, because there is but one time 
for moral training, and that is infancy. 

INFANT EDUCATION. 

1st, A watchful observance and management of the temper, 
whose abuse is the impulse to violence and anger, should com- 

* Vide Dr. Combe's excellent work on the " Principles of Physio- 
logy applied to the Preservation of Health," also Dr. Poole on Edu- 
cation. 



INFANT EDUCATION. 91 

mence when the subject is yet in the cradle. The utmost that 
can then be attempted is the diversion of the infant from the 
feeling, when excited, and its object, and the avoidance of all 
exciting causes of its activity. If this be neglected, a bent is 
given, which it is most difficult ever afterward to set straight. 

2d, The child, so managed by his nurse as to escape the first 
trials of temper, should be introduced as early as possible to his 
fellows of the same age ; the best time is when he can just walk 
alone ; for it is in the society of his fellows that the means of 
his moral training are to be found- 

3d, It is advantageous, nay necessary, that his fellows shall 
be numerous, presenting a variety of dispositions, — an actual 
world into which he is introduced, a world of infant business, 
and infant intercourse, a miniature, and it is so, of the adult 
world itself. The numbers should rather exceed fifty than fall 
much short of it. 

4th, But this intercourse must not be at random, each infant 
only bringing its stock of animalism to aggravate that of its 
playmates, and establish a savage community. It must be cor- 
rectly systematized, and narrowly superintended and watched, 
by well instructed and habitually moral persons. 

5th, The conductor's own relation to his infant charge should 
be affection, cheerfulness, mirth, and that activity of tempera- 
ment which delights and keeps alive the infant faculties. 

6th, The infants should be permitted to play together out of 
doors, in unrestrained freedom ; a watchful eye being all the 
while kept upon the nature and manner of their intercourse. 

7th, Unceasing encouragement should be given to the practice 
of generosity, gentleness, mercy, kindness, honesty, truth, and 
"cleanliness in personal habits ; and all occasions of quarrel, or 
cruelty, or fraud, or falsehood, minutely and patiently examined 
into, and the moral balance, when overset, restored ; while, on 
the other hand, all indelicacy, filthiness, greediness, covetous- 
ness, unfairness, dishonesty, violence, cruelty, insolence, vanity, 
cowardice, and obstinacy, should be repressed by all the moral 
police of the community. No instance should ever be passed 
over. 

8th, There ought to be much well-regulated muscular exercise 
in the play of the infants, which should be as much as possible 
in the open air. 

9th, Their school-hall should be large, and regularly ventila- 
ted when they are out of it, and when they are in it if the 
weather permits; and the importance of ventilation, air, exercise- 
and cleanliness, unceasingly illustrated, and impressed upon 
them as a habit and a duty. 

10th, Every means of early implanting taste and refinement 
should be employed, for these are good preoccupants of the soil 



92 INTELLECTUAL TRAINING 

to the exclusion of the coarseness of vice. The play-ground 
should be neatly laid out, with bordeis for flowers, shrubs, and 
fruit-trees, tasteful ornaments erected, which the coarse-mind- 
ed are so prone to destroy, and the infants habituated not only to 
respect but to admire and delight in them ; while the entire ab- 
sence of guard or restraint will give them the feeling that they 
are .confided in, and exercise yet higher feelings than taste and 
refinement. 

11th, The too prevalent cruelty of the young to animals, often 
from mere thoughtlessness, may be prevented by many lessons 
on the subject, and by the actual habit of kindness to pets, kept 
for the purpose, such as a dog, a cat, rabbits, ducks, &c. ; and 
by hearing all cruelty, even to reptiles, reprobated by their 
teacher and all their companions. An insect or reptile ought 
never to be permitted to be killed or tortured.* 

12th, The practice of teasing idiots or imbecile persons in the 
streets, ought to be held in due reprobation, as ungenerous, cruel, 
and cowardly. In the same way, other hurtful practices, even 
those which are the vices of more advanced years, may be 
prevented by anticipation. For example, ardent spirits-drinking 
may, for the three or four years of the infant training, be so con- 
stantly reprobated in the precepts, lessons, and illustrative stories 
of the conductor, and the ready acquiescence of the whole es- 
tablishment, as to be early and indissolubly associated with 
poison and with crime; instead of being, as is now too much the 
case, held up to the young as the joy and privilege of manhood. f 

13th, Many prejudices, fears, and superstitions, which render 
the great mass of the people intractable, may be prevented from 
taking root, by three or four years of contrary impressions; 
superstitious terrors, the supernatural agencies and apparition 
of witches and ghosts, distrust of the benevolent advances of 
the richer classes, suspicions, envyings, absurd self-sufficiencies 
and vanities, and many other hurtful and antisocial habits of feel- 
ing may be absolutely excluded, and a, capacity of much higher 
moral principle established in their stead. 

14th, Besides the moral habitudes which we have exemplified 
rather than fully enumerated, — habitudes gained by four years 
practice for at least six hours every day, — the Intellectual facul- 
ties must not be neglected in infant training. Those which be- 
gin early to act must be the better for early judicious direction 
and exercise. At six months' old, infants are commencing the 
use of the faculty of observing external objects, and are seeing, 
hearing, and touching with marked acuteness and activity. A 
judicious nurse, instructed in the infant faculties and their rela- 
tive objects, might direct and exercise all these powers to their 
great improvement, so as to render them better instruments for 
* See App. No. III. f See App. No. III. 



REAL AND VERBAL. 93 

the infant's use, when, at two years old he joins a number of his 
contemporaries. The stimulous of numbers will work wonders 
on the child, and bring out his observing and remembering in- 
tellect in a manner that will surprise his family at home. The 
first objects of his attentive observation will be his numerous little 
friends ; then all the varied objects of that new world, the infant 
seminary; its pictures, numerous and highly coloured beyond his 
dreams ; the curiosities of the little museum ; the flowers, the fruit- 
trees, thedressedborderoftheplay-ground, the swings for exercise, 
the wooden bricks for building, the astonishing movements, and 
feats, and learning, and cleverness of the trained pupils, will all fill 
the youngest new-comer with wonder, delight, and ardour, and 
heartily engage him in the business of the place in a day or two. 
A skilful teacher will keep up the activity of the faculty of won- 
der, thus excited, as long as he can without the risk of ex- 
hausting it. Every object presented is now a wonder, to be 
eagerly gazed at, and curiously handled ; and here will com- 
mence, with zeal on the infant learner's side, that grand but re- 
cent improvement in education, real, as distinguished from 
merely verbal, intellectual training; butyet real including verbal 
as an accessory, instead of verbal excluding real. The discove- 
ry, for it is so, that it is* better at once to introduce the pupil to the 
real tangible visible world, than to do no more than talk to him 
about it in its absence, is of immense value, and of admirable appli- 
cation to infant intellectual training. The child of two years is 
acutely appetised for things, but yet very feebly for words : when, 
by a grand error, words are forced upon him, things will invariably 
take off his attention, and often has he been punished for evincing 
a law of his nature, inattention to his "book." If the instructer un- 
derstands and obeys nature, he will readily and judiciously supply 
things or objects to those faculties in his pupil, which were crea- 
ted to be intensely gratified with the cognizance of them. We 
mean by a judicious supply of objects, a scientific combination of 
the pupil's delight with his improvement. The objects should 
be arranged in lessons, and successively presented to the pupil's 
senses and faculty „ for observing existences. The simple and 
obvious qualities of any object, are inseparable from it, and 
should be carefully pointed out to him ; while, by a succession of 
objects, he will learn a variety of qualities, till he has mastered 
all the qualities of external objects, cognizable without chymical 
analysis. For example*, introduce a class of pupils to a piece 
of glass. Let them each and all see it, handle it, weigh it, look 
through it, break it, cut with it, &c. They have thus got its 
colour, smoothness, hardness, weight, transparency, brittleness, 

* 1 take these examples from Dr. Mayo's "Lessons on Objects," for 
the Cheam School, Surrey, on the Pestalozzi plan. 



94 LESSONS ON OBJECTS. 

sharpness. Let them, at the same time, be. familiarized with 
the words that express glass, and all these its qualities, and let 
them see each word printed, and written, and spelled, by which 
means their reading is incidentally begun. Ask them if they 
can name something else that is transparent 1 They will proba- 
bly answer, water. Something else which cuts ? A knife. If 
the piece of sponge tied to their slate is smooth ? No, it is 
rough. Tell them the uses of glass. In their next lesson give 
them something very different from glass in its qualities as to 
transparency, smoothness, hardness, brittleness, sharpness, — for 
example, a piece of india rubber. It is opaque, (write the word 
and exhibit it printed, as with all the others), soft, not brittle, not 
sharp, besides being flexible, elastic inflammable, black, tough, 
waterproof. Every quality must be shown in its own way, and 
the uses of the substance explained. Leather is the third les- 
son. Wherever any quality of the new object agrees with a 
quality found in any previous object, let the pupils find that out. 
Leather, like Indian rubber, is flexible, opaque, waterproof, 
tough, smooth, combustible. It diners from it in odour, &c. 
Loaf Sugar is the object of the fourth lesson. It agrees with 
the two preceding objects, in being opaque, and with glass in 
being hard and brittle ; but it is soluble (demonstrated by dis- 
solving a piece in water), fusible (in the flame of a candle), 
white, sweet, sparkling, &c. Its uses are well known to chil- 
dren. The lessons proceed, and by means of twenty-two of the 
most common articles, (including the four named above), viz. gum, 
sponge, wood, water, beeswax, camphor, bread, sealing-wax, 
whalebone, blotting-paper, willow, milk, spice, salt, horn, ivory, 
chalk, and oak-bark, are gained the real ideas, and the insepara- 
ble names, ofthe following qualities, viz. bright, yellow, semitrans- 
parent.adhesive when melted, porous, absorbing, soft, dull, light- 
brown, dry, light, liquid, reflective, colourless, inodorous, tasteless, 
heavy, purifying, wholesome, stickv, yellowish, aromatic, fiiable, 
volatile, soluble in spirits, medicinal, edible, nutritious, yellowish- 
white, moist, impressible, adhesive, fibrous, stiff, pungent, jagged, 
thin, pinkish, pliable, easily torn, fluid, greasy, granular, saline, 
•sapid, uneven, hollow, odorous when burnt, tapering, efferves- 
cent in acid, rugged, &c. Of course, when the quality cannot 
be observed without it, an experiment is made, as by making 
chalk effervesce in vinegar. • 

When the children are perfectly familiar with the objects which, 
•in twenty-twx) lessons, form the first series, their qualities, names, 
the abstract ideas, and uses, can tell wherein they agree or dif- 
fer, and read and spell the words, they are introduced to a second 
series of fourteen lessons, each lesson on a specific object. This 
series is preceded by an explanation of the Jive senses, while the 
knowledge already acquired is classified according as ii has come 



LESSONS ON OBJECTS. 95 

through the channel of each sense, or through that of more than one 
sense at a time. Parts of objects are submitted to the pupils, as 
of a pin, a cube of wood, with its angle and surfaces, the cylin- 
drical form of an uncut lead pencil, a pen, a wax candle, a chair, 
a clock, an egg, a tray, a cup, a grain of coffee, a pair of scis- 
sors, &c. 

The third series of seventeen lessons, introduces the children 
to the notions of natural and artificial, such as wool, and wool- 
len-cloth, animal, vegetable, animate, inanimate, illustrated by 
a quiil, a flower, an insect. Again the qualities and parts acquired 
in the former lessons, and the terms they have used, are rehears- 
ed, the terms have been incidentally impressed by connecting 
them with real ideas. The derivation of the words from the Latin 
and Greek, is &c. is likewise made an exercise, and the ideas, the 
words, and their derivations, are all connected together, in one 
indissoluble association. In the lessons of the third series, the 
qualites, parts, conditions, differences, agreements, manufacture, 
and abstract ideas of the following objects are impressed and 
connected with language : — Wool, a halfpenny, mustard-seed, 
an apple, a glass of a watch, brown sugar, refined sugar, an 
acorn, honeycomb, butter-cup, lady-bird, oyster, a fircone, fur, 
a laurel-leaf, a needle, a stone. It is evident that these few 
objects lead to a great variety of valuable ideas, with their cor- 
responding terms and derivations, their uses, places whence 
brought, abstract terms arising, &c, for example, mineral, me- 
talic, fusible, indigenous, spherical, stimulating; ; stone, stony ; 
milk., milky ; organized, inorganized, &c. At least one hundred 
new ideas are conveyed in this series. 

The fourth series has for its aim, the classification of objects 
according to their resemblances and differences. This is an ad- 
vance upon the former lessons, as it calls into activity the re- 
flecting faculty of comparison. The spices are chosen as form- 
ing a connected series of objects. The metals, woods, and 
grains, follow, and a store of collateral ideas are imparted, such 
as production, trade and commerce, uses of malt, hops, and many 
others. An exercise in the comparison of substances, showing 
the points of resemblance and difference, concludes the series. 

The ideas imparted by the lessonss in these four series, are 
sufficient for infants from two years of age to six, the infant- 
school period. The fifth and last series of forty-nine lessons, 
will suit better the more advanced school, to which we shall 
come in the sequel. 

The reader, it is presumed, is now prepared to estimate the 
value of educating man according to his faculties. Under the 
department of moral training, he has seen education applied to 
the regulation of the inferior faculties, which give rise to drunk- 
enness, gluttony, greediness, anger, violence, cruelty, insolence, 



96 EDINBURGH MODEL INFANT SCHOOL. 

rapacity, dishonesty, cunning, and falsehood ; he has also seen 
it applied to the cultivation and increase of the superior moral 
faculties, which lead to justice, benevolence and piety ; while, 
under the branch of intellectual training, he has seen an expo- 
sition of direct training of the faculties, by which we gain the 
simplest knowledge of material objects, and their qualities and 
relations, and of the faculty whereby we put ideas into words, 
give objects names, and read and spell the same in letters, in 
other words, incidentally learn to read. An excellent arrange- 
ment on the monitorial plan is mads for reading, by marching 
small classes of four or five children each, under a monitor, 
round a succession of boards hung on posts ; the boards contain 
both letter-press and pictures. 

All .the intellectual course described, is really accessorial to 
moral training. I say accessorial; for moral training is the 
paramount objecl of the Infant system. 

In the Model Infant School in Edinburgh, Dr. Mayo's lessons 
on objects are taught and practised by Mr. Milne the present 
teacher. Dr. Mayo does not give his lessons till after the pupil 
has passed six and even eight years of age. Experience in the 
Edinburgh School has shown that this is an uncalled for loss of 
time ; the very simple, though useful knowledge we have de- 
tailed, which is in requisition every hour of our lives, and is 
used even in the most advanced investigations of the chymist and 
mechanical philosopher, being found to be beneficially mastered 
by infants, and impressed, it is trusted, never to be obliterated. 
But the Infant School system, as realized in Edinburgh, besides 
the Cheam lessons on objects, affords intellectual instruction on 
many other points, such as the elements of arithmetic, — by the 
visible method of small balls on wires in frames, — money, tables 
of weights and measures, geography, the elementary mathe- 
matical figures, with no inconsiderable portion of useful practi- 
cal knowledge, often conveyed in verse, and sung in, chorus; 
while no opportunity is omitted by the teacher to amuse, as well 
as to instruct, by anecdotes illustrative of the lessons, and told in 
an elliptical manner, so that the children themselves fill up the 
blanks as it were, the teacher stopping the narrative till they 
do so, or making some sign or motion implying the desired idea. 

The lessons are never continued too long, seldom beyond half an 
hour ; while the intervals are filled up with short portions of ex- 
ercise in the play-ground in which the teacher often joins, keep- 
ing up spirit and active movement, while he is narrowly watch- 
ing moral conduct and social intercourse. The school-room is 
regularly ventilated by cross windows when the children are out 
of it, properly warmed in winter, and kept particularly neat and 
clean, and even showy; while the pupils are habituated to 
value these attentions, and receive lessons upon their end and 



RELIGIOUS IMPRESSIONS HOW MADE. 97 

object, which they carry to their homes, where they are most 
needed. 

Careful provision is made in the Infant system to give early 
religious impressions, in a manner which shall connect religious 
ideas with every thing in life, and render them a means of hap- 
piness, and not, as is too much done- — a source of tasks and 
punishments for the present, and terror for the future. Every 
lesson, every step in the simplest, knowledge, is made a channel 
for allusions to, and illustrations of. the Creator's power and 
goodness : while His will that his laws, moral and physical, shall 
he obeyed, is rendered obvious, by an exposition of the evils re- 
sulting from disobedience, and the benefits from obedience. Thus, 
the Creator is always kept in view, not alone as an awful 
Judge sitting on high watching the thoughts and actions of his 
creatures to reward or punish them hereafter, — a view of him 
which addresses selfishness alone and never can produce eleva- 
tion — but as the present God, the Essence of every thing around 
us, guiding us to temporal as well as eternal happiness, by his 
infinite wisdom and goodness. These real impressions lay an 
early foundation for the love of God, which no mere precepts, 
still less ill-judged threats, can ever succeed in producing. 
The Saviour's history, which exercises and delights the higher 
faculties, is detailed in the most attractive manner, and what 
he -did for mankind simply expounded, as it ought to be to in- 
fants : while the morality of his precepts and benignity of his 
example are easily and beautifully shown to be the very kind- 
ness, justice, and truth, which they are taught to exercise in 
their mutual intercourse. Thus, the morality of their every 
day conduct, and their habitual love of God, are connected with 
the morality of Christianity, and associated in their minds as 
identical with it. No creed or catechism of any sect whatever, 
dominant or dissenting, is taught; not only because the children 
of many sects unite in the same school, but because religion 
taught to the very young in that form, has been found at once 
unintelligible and repulsive. Scripture history, illustrated by 
well chosen engravings, coloured to attract, conveys to the'm, in 
a pleasing manner, the leading facts of both Testaments, and 
always with a heart-improving application ; while their prayers 
and hymns are of the simplest, most improving, and least secta- 
rian character. This is a more fitting culture for ulterior in- 
struction by the pastors of their own respective persuasions, 
(upon whom the duty should mainly fall, else their office is su- 
perfluous,) than these or other persuasions will achieve by any 
other mode of religious instruction we have yet met with or 
heard of. Those who, with the best intentions, but — I say it 
with respect — uninformed zeal, prefer, to the course now recom- 
mended, what they miscall, as applied to infants, a religious 

9 



98 SECULAR FRIENDLY TO RELIGIOUS PROGRESS. 

foundation of doctrines and catechisms, and these of their owr? 
sect exclusive!)', and an early impression of God as an object of 
terror, which degrades religion'to selfish calculation and interest- 
ed adulation, are little aware how signally they are defeating 
their own purpose, and rendering more and more extensive the 
evil of which they so loudly complain, the want of practical vi- 
ta! religion. What, on the other hand, is now proposed, is the 
preparation of the soil for the good seed formerly alluded to. 
It is at least the commencement of the process of preparation : 
it engages the affections, and connects religion with as sociations 
of delight, which will never leave the mind. The author has 
been assured by Mr. Wilderspin, and the statement has beera 
confirmed by the two successive teachers of the Edinburgh Mo- 
del Infant School, Mr. Wright, deceased, and Mr. Milne, that 
whenever the children are allowed a choice of the kind of story 
lo be told them, the vote is almost invariably for a Seripture 
story. Their intellectual improvement, and their habitual and 
moral exercise, will serve to strengthen the religious feelings as 
they advance in 'years. The Report of the Committee of Ma- 
nagement of the General Assembly's Schools in Scotland has 
borne valuable testimony to this, by declaring that progress in 
secular knowledge was accompanied by progress in religious 
attainment. If this is true of intellectual progress merely, how 
much more must it result from what the General Assembly has 
not yet made provision for, — the practical moral training of In- 
fant Schools, and the continued moral exercise which an en- 
lightened system of ulterior education will find means of uniting 
with all the subsequent stages. The author has been assured by 
the teachers of more advanced schools in Edinburgh, to which 
the Infant School trained children have been transferred, that 
they are the most docile, cheerful, and ready pupils in the school ; 
and there cannot be a doubt that their religious teachers, when 
they come into their hands, will have the same experience. 
This is the first step of that effective excavation from heathen- 
ism, always with the blessing of God, which Dr. Chalmers de- 
siderates. 

There are excellent and sincere men, who will not concur in? 
these views of preparation ; for them I entertain great respect 
and would yet greater, if they were a little more tolerant of 
others, who, wishing, as sincerely as they can do, that religion, 
should live in the heart, and breathe in the actions of every hu- 
man being, labour towards that blessed end in a somewhat dif- 
ferent direction ; but 1 beg them to consider, that in thus urging 
preparation, I am to be understood as speaking only of the pro- 
priety of using means, and nowise as touching, far less impugn- 
ing, the doctrine of free grace. 

As the Edinburgh Model School has now been at work for 



WORKING OF EDINBURGH INFANT SCHOOL. 99 

%hree years, this is the proper place to state shortly how the exe 
periment has succeeded. A Report has been published by ths 
Directors of the Society, which, — after detailing ths progre 
of the children intellectually •, which was witnessed on severa 
occasions by the public, at stated exhibitions chirasterizsd by 
ths spirit, animation, and zeal inspired by the system, — add?, in 
an appendix, a series of incidents, the result of the moral influence 
of the place, classed according as they manifested — -kindness, 
brotherly love, gentleness and mercy, — truth, honesty, and ho- 
nour — attachment, refinement, &c; and the picture, considering 
the class of life, is most satisfactory. I have extracted fully 
from the Report in the Appendix of this work No. III. and 
earnestly request the reader to peruse that extract, which,, from 
its great interest, will well reward his labour. He wili find quar- 
relling rarely occurring, fighting unknown, insolence and selfish- 
ness restrained, found money faithfully restored, provisions, 
however exposed, untouched, kindness — even generosity mani- 
fested, mercy to animals, cleanly habits, refinement and orna- 
ment respected, and horror of ardent spirits inculcated and ex- 
pressed. A few specimens, out of many letters received from 
the parents, are added, which show the improvement effected on 
the conduct and demeanour of the children at home ; namely 
a change from filth, laziness, obstinacy, waywardness, and self- 
ishness, — to cleanliness, activity, docility, respect and kindli- 
ness. 

We might have mentioned in its place, but it is never out of 
season to do so, that, while all appliances, direct and indirect, 
■are resorted to, for the purpose of regulating the inferior, and 
cultivating the superior feelings, that grand solecism of ordina- 
ry seminaries of education,, an appeal to pride, vanity, and 
love of gain, three grand enemies of human weal, is avoided 
within the walls of an infant school. There are no prizes, me- 
dals, or places of distinction among the infants. These are ba- 
nished, or rather are unheard of, as incompatible with the essence 
of the system; its chief object being to moderate selfishness, 
they would be as self-defeating as oil applied to extinguish fire. 

They are, moreover, quite superfluous under a system of 
training which gives delight by exercising so many of the facul- 
ties, and succeeds in keeping up for years a degree of anima- 
tion, attention, and zeal, which the selfish impulse of places and 
prizes never yet attained, in the dull routine which require these 
artificial stimulants. The author remembers once asking Mr. 
Wilderspin if he had ever tried place-taking? He answered, 
*• My infants would scorn the baby practice ; it would lower the 
whole character of the school, and defeat my best endeavours 
for their moral improvement." It may be added, that it would 
l-ower the intellectual character of the place not less, inasmuch 



100 OBJECTIONS — EDUCATION TOO EARLY. 

as it would spur the clever few to learn in order to gratify a self- 
ish feeling, while the great majority would give up the race 
from despairing of the prize, which is absurdly rendered the 
chief attraction and motive to exertion.* We need not con- 
sume time on the other well known stimulus, in ordinary schools, 
punishments. These are directed to a base fear, often excite 
the most malignant feelings of revenge, and would, unless 
under the most cautious regulation, be as hurtful as unnecessary 
in a well conducted infant school. 

Viewing infant education as the most powerful instrument of 
moral elevation yet invented by man, I am anxious to remove 
any objection which inattention to its real nature is apt to throw- 
in the way of its progress. Its novelty and utter dissimilarity 
to any preceding system, and its inconsistency with all the no- 
tions hitherto entertained of infant capabilities, have combined to 
raise against its first announcement the strongest prejudice, 1st, 
The idea is ridiculed of teaching children from two to four years 
of age any thing. It is called education run mad, — a hotbed of 
precocity, — parrot-training, — confinement and tasks when chil- 
dren should run wild, — realizing the adage, "soon ripe soon 
rotten," and so forth. It is impossible to present a more in- 
structive example of that ignorance of the human faculties which 
is yet nearly universal in society, than these objections, which, it 
must have been observed, are promptly and unreflectingly stated, 
and with considerable dogmatism, in every company where in- 
fant schools are mentioned. It is utterly unsuspected by the ob- 
jectors, that man is a moral as well as an intellectual being; that 
he has feelings which require education, and that on the right 
training of these depend the happiness of the individual and wel- 

* I feel it not only a duty but a delight to devote a note to this sin- 
gularly meritorious individual, whom it concerns the public to^know be- 
fore they are called upon, as they must be, to approve of his receiving 
a national tribute for the benefits he has conferred on his fellow men, 
— the toils' he has cheerfully endured, — the pittance he has generally 
conditioned as bare livelihood,— and last, and not least, the obstruc- 
tions and persecutions with which his enlightened and benevolent la- 
bours have been met, chiefly, it cannot be concealed, from high 
churchmen. If an Infant School is to be organized in the extreme 
north of Scotland, Mr. Wilderspin will come from Cheltenham, where 
he resides, for the humblest travelling expenses and means of subsist- 
ence, and devote six weeks to the training of the pupils and teachers ; 
while, by his lectures and zeal, he never fails to give such an impulse 
to the whole region which he visits, as. often gives him several schools to 
set agoing before he is called elsewhere. He is ready for any infant- 
education enterprise, to the sacrifice of every selfish consideration; 
and once offered himself to goto the West Indies to organize schools 
for the children of the Negroes, if he should perish in the attempt. 
Mr. Wilderspin did not first invent Infant Schools; but he has to so 
great an extent improved them in principle and details, as beyond aU 
question to have made them his own. 



SEPARATES PARENT AND CHILD. 101 

fare of society, infinitely more than on the highest attainments 
merely intellectual. Now, the education of the feelings has 
already been shown to be the primary and paramount object of 
the infant school system: it has, moreover, been distinctly laid 
down, that these feelings are incomparably more easily bent and 
moulded to good m infancy than in after years ; that after six 
years of age their effectual culture is, in many cases, nearly 
hopeless; hence, to delay it till this age would be to leave it out 
of education altogether ; and this, to the heavy cost of society, 
has been hitherto the ignorantly adopted alternative. 

But, again, while moral training is the primary object of in- 
fant education, and, in respect of its only practicable period of 
life, requiring that the schools for it should be schools for in- 
fants, it has been found natural and advantageous to ingraft upon 
that training a most beneficial intellectual culture, suited to the 
tender age of the pupils, and very far indeed from meriting the 
incredulous contempt with which our objectors treat it. No in- 
telligent or candid person can read Mr. Wilderspin's work on 
the system, but, above all, see the inspiring spectacle of a well 
conducted infant school, and persist in maintaining that the intel- 
lectual culture is injudicious, premature, annoying to the children, 
and useless : the intellectual faculties, and all these faculties, 
not one or two of them as in ordinary schools, are moderately 
exercised, so as to combine amusement with instruction : and as 
they are presented with their appropriate objects, they cognize 
and enjoy complete comprehension of every object presented. 
Their studies are varied with healthful exercise and constant 
amusement, story, song, and fun; nothing like a task annoys 
them, and they obtain, without an exertion, much fundamental 
knowledge to serve them for life. 

2d, Those who are not so decided on the objection of prema- 
ture education, are yet extremely peremptory on the point of 
committing the early years of infants to any other hand than the 
mother's. It is to break, they say, the hallowed bond which 
unites the parent and the child, to alienate the heart of the infant 
from his proper guardian , and take away from the latter all mo- 
tive for parental solicitude. In answer to this, reference is tri- 
umphantly made to the letters from the parents of children at the 
Edinburgh Model Infant School, as the best possible evidence of 
the working of the system in this important particular ;* the let- 
ters dwell with pleasure upon the improvement perceived in the 
children in love for, and concern about, their parents; obedience 
and obligingness are the every-day fruits of this improvement, and 
there cannot fail to be that beautiful re-action which, through 
She affectionate influence of the child, insensibly reforms and 

* Appendix, No. III. 
9* 



102 NUMBERS REQUIRED HIGHER RANKS. 

christianizes the parents. Accordingly, the letters state the fact 
with gratitude, that the children, who used to be a nuisance at 
home, are now a pride and pleasure, and the parents look for 
their return from school as the most cheerful hour of the day. 
A slight reflection would, independent of such evidence, serve to 
convince any person of sense, that separation of the child from 
the parents for six hours in the day, is no greater separation than 
actually takes place in every rank of life ; eighteen hours out of 
the twenty-four may surely suffice to recover the affections which 
six hours absence may have endangered : but there is so much 
nonsense in this objection, that it is really to lose lime to answer 
it gravely. Will any one pretend, that parents in the lower class- 
es are fitted to exercise their children in moral, religious, cleanly 
and wholesome habits ! Nay, more, are there many parents in 
the middle and higher classes, who, committing their children, 
as they do, to the exclusive society of nursery-maids for much 
more than six hours a-day, can say that they have time, and me- 
thod, and means for communicating moral improvement to their 
children, superior to what is done according to a system founded 
on the most philosophical principles, and the most enlightened 
views of human nature, — the Infant School system of Wilder- 
spin 1 I have heard mothers of intelligence, accomplishment, 
and experience, admit and regret that the principles of early mo- 
ral education cannot be regularly, systematically, and efficiently 
applied at home. The important, nay indispensable, element of 
numbers, to exercise practically the social virtues, is wanting, 
and is not supplied by a few children of different ages in the 
same nursery ; in no nursery is it possible to prevent selfishness, 
contention, and even fighting. Moreover, in the best conducted 
family, the children are left with servants for a longer period than 
the hours of an infant school, — that " well regulated systematic 
nursery" as it has been, happily called,* where the children of 
all classes of society will be greatly benefited by spending 
several of their earliest years. 

3d, This word all has raised the warmest opposition, and that 
from many who admit that infant schools may be beneficial to 
the lower classes, but maintain that all educated mothers ought 
to be the sole guides of the infant years of their children. This 
sounds beautifully ; but let any one look around in the circle of his 
acquaintance and point out if he can, ten, — five, — nay, one 
mother qualified to communicate to her infant a tithe of the ad- 
vantages he will derive from the system of an infant school 1 
Why should an incogitate prejudice deprive an infant being of 

* By Jeffrey, in his speech at the meeting when the Infant School 
Society of Edinburgh was formed in 1829. 



EFFECT OF REJECTION BY THEM. 103 

this mighty blessing, because he chances to be born of richer pa- 
rents, — in that event a great misfortune to him, — than another 
who, because he is poor, is qualified to enjoy it ? If it were not 
certain that, when the infant education system shall come to be 
understood, it must be eagerly sought by parents of all grades 
in society, there would be reason to expect that, in the course of 
time, the class enjoying it would rise higher in character than the 
class rejecting it, and thereby higher in social rank. This would 
settle the question whether or not Infant Schools are suitable for 
the higher classes of society. 



104 



CHAPTER V. 



ON EDUCATION AS ADAPTED TO THE FACULTIES CONTINUED,- 
EDUCATION SUBSEQUENT TO INFANCY. 



Pupils six years old— School till fourteen— Moral training continued- 
Record of duties— Monitorial system— Writing— Drawing— Arith- 
metic — Continuation of the Mayo lessons— Incidental teaching — In- 
cidental reading — Incidental grammar — No spelling — Lessons on 
chymical substances, solid, fluid, gaseous — Ghymical experiments — 
Chymical elements — Knowledge of man in body and mind — Geogra- 
phy— Globe— Incidental Astronomy— Civil History— Geometry— Me- 
chanical Science — Natural History — Incidental Natural Theology — 
Study of nature naturalized — Lessons on political state — Lessons on 
political economy — Exercise of the reflecting powers — Maxims and 
proverbs — Education for all — For peculiar talents or turns — Science 
taught to the young, to the working classes, to females — Educational 
Code— Training Teachers— Schools of Industry— American schools 
of manual labour— Domestic service — Ulterior education — Langua- 
ges — Classics — College. 



The pupil is now six years old, and ought not to remain in 
the infant school after that age ; as it has been found that the 
mixture of older children operates upon the younger too much 
in the way of influence, to the effect of diminishing the original 
working of the faculties. A limit should be fixed and scrupu- 
lously adhered to. At six the pupil should be introduced to the 
school in which he is to find occupation till he arrives at four- 
teen, the age of puberty, at which age, it is submitted to be prac- 
ticable that he shall have attained, besides moral habits, a sum 
of general elementary knowledge, sufficient as a basis, if his 
destination be manual labour, for farther voluntary progress as 
the employment of his leisure time, as resource in any situation 
in which he may find himself, and as the means of applying the 
faculties in which he is strongest to his own advancement in 
the world ; while the just notions of social life which he has at- 
tained will regulate his future views ; and at once deliver him 
from the various impostors that now mislead him, and render 



MORAL EXERCISE IN ADVANCED SCHOOL. 105 

him the enlightened and willing- co-operator with yet higher 
intellects* in plans for the general welfare. If the pupil's des- 
tination be a pursuit abo\'e manual labour, his acquisitions, at 
fourteen, will form a basis on which to push yet farther the pur- 
suits of science, and apply these to exalt the character and use- 
fulness of his future professional line of employment. 

Is/, The moral training begun in the infant school, must 
not be considered as finished there. Its principles and practice 
ought to have a prominent influence on all the subsequent steps 
of education, and be held as a directing and advancing system 
through the whole of life. Rules should be systematically laid 
down for the constant exercise of benevolence, justice and prac- 
tical piety, in all the intercourse and all the business of the 
school ; the readings and lessons should have a moral tendency ; 
all selfishness, rudeness, coarseness, and imprecation, should be 
habitually reprobated in the place ; and cooperation, disinterest- 
edness, and kindness, esteemed and encouraged. The subject 
of morals should be made prominent, and the scriptural founda- 
tion of all its charity and brotherly love unceasingly impressed 
upon the pupil's mind. There is a simple, and as it may be 
called mechanical, aid to the teacher's precepts and the pupil's 
moral practice, which, printed in a cheap form, should be in the 
possession of every pupil, and used by him every day of his con- 
tinuance in the school beyond the stage of infancy. It is the 
production of a female moralist, is called A Daily Record of 
Duties, organic, moral, religious, and intellectual, and 
has been used in families both in England and Scotland for ths 
last three years. The duties which the Creator has constituted 
the conditions of human happiness are arranged according to the 
classes mentioned in its title ; while the details have reference 
to the faculties, and these are adopted according to the analysis 
offered in Chapter III. of this treatise. A specimen of one 
week of the Record as kept, will be found in the Appendix, No. 
V., of which each of the other fifty-one is a repetition. Every 
night before going to bed, the pupil's attention is called to the 
events of the day; and the array of duties which demand fulfil- 
ment is pondered by him. He weighs them all, for guilt in one 
is morally as well as religiously, guilt in all, and is inconsistent 
with the claim of having performed the duty of " Obedience to 
God," which is one of the entries; so that if nothing else were 
done than securing a diurnal perusal of the names of the duties, 
a daily reminiscence that these are human obligations, actual 
good cannot but result. But when this help to self-examination 
is really and sincerely used as a regulator of conduct, the good 
it is capable of doing is incalculable. It might be difficult for 
one teacher of a numerous school, to superintend the fidelity of 
the entries made by the pupils in these registers ; but at least the 



106 MONITORIAL SYSTEM — WRITING. 

books may be produced to the monitors of classes, and each 
pupil be required to explain his entries, and state upon what act 
or kind of conduct he felt authorized to make them ; any thing 
remarkable to be reported to the teacher. Of course the record- 
books of the monitors themselves will fall to be revised by the 
teacher. What is now stated will be easily understood by a 
glance at the specimen in the appendix. 

I need scarcely say, that the monitorial system which, from 
its many direct and indirect advantages, is adopted even in the 
infant school, should be continued in the more advanced semi- 
nary, as essential to its efficiency. On the benefits of this admira- 
ble educational improvement, which is in itself sufficient to im- 
mortalize the names of Lancaster and Bell, there is now, it is 
believed, scarcely a dissenting voice. 

In the advanced school, which is attended for eight years, 
there will be not only variety of pursuit, but different grades of 
progress ; but there must, of course, be classes of pupils at the 
same stage, and learning the same matters. There may be a 
call for more than one teacher to answer the degrees of pro- 
gress, — the infant teacher must be a different person from the 
more advanced, — but this is matter of economical arrangement, 
which I am not at present considering. I shall therefore pro- 
ceed with the subject of educating the faculties on their objects, 
^l^tever shall be the mere machinery put in train for that pur- 
pose. Writing must be zealously practised according to the 
briefest and best system yet adopted in the Lancasterian schools ; 
and the pupil habituated gradually to write down words on his 
slate, when required, and practise with pen and ink occasionally. 
Drawing is no more than writing down objects; and its princi- 
ples, to the extent of sketching objects presented, 'ought to be 
taught in the writing class ; for allied branches should be prac- 
tised together. Design and painting are for those gifted with 
the talent required ; but every pupil should be able to form on 
his slate such objects as a square, a cube, a tree, a house, a ma- 
chine, &c, in correct drawing and perspective. Arithmetic, 
which has been well grounded in the infant school, by means of 
visible and tangible numbers, should proceed with its calcula- 
tions and applications, according to the abridged and clever sys- 
tem of Mr. -Wood, of the Lancasterian schools, or Pestalozzi's 
method, as may be found to succeed best.* 

The Pestalozzian lessons on objects of Dr. Mayo, it will be 
recollected, were left unfinished, as the remainder was consider- 
ed beyond the stage of the infant school. The fifth and last 
series of forty-nine lessons affords practice in combination. Each 

* I have much pleasure in referring to Mr. Biber's " Life of Pesta* 
f.«&?i s " which contains a summary on this and all other pointy 



ADVANCED LESSONS ON OBJECTS. 107 

object is presented, as before to the pupils, who make their own 
observations upon it. They are then interrogated as to what 
they know concerning the substance; and ail the information 
which can be obtained from them is collected by the teacher, 
who may communicate any farther particulars on the subject, 
calculated to interest or instruct. The materials thus obtained 
should be arranged, and repeated to them; after which the class 
should be examined upon all that has passed ; and finally, requir- 
ed to draw up a written account themselves. Children from 
eight to ten years of age have derived great improvement from 
this exercise. It not only serves to stimulate their attention 
during the progress cf the lesson, but also furnishes a test of 
their having well understood it, and leads them to express their 
ideas with clearness and facility. In this course the substance 
should be exhibited both in its raw and manufactured state. Thus 
in the Lesson of Flax, the plant itself, the fibres when separated 
from the stem, the thread when spun, and the various substances 
into which it is made, may be brought before the pupils, and like- 
wise models of the machinery employed in these operations. 
The first lesson of this series impresses the origin, appearance, 
qualities, preparation, and uses of Leather; and this includes oak- 
bark, lime water, alkali, &c. The second lesson treais of Cork 
in the same way, and tells where it is produced. The succeeding 
"lessons are on India Rubber, Sponge, (for many of the objects 
were presented before for a less extensive description.) Cam- 
phire, Horn, Shell-lac, Wax-candles 5 — which brings in capillary 
attraction, Glue, CofFee, Tea, Sago, Rice, Paper, with a long 
lesson on its manufacture ; Parchment, Glass, Whalebone. Bread, 
Sugar, Hemp, Flax, Cotton, Wool, Silk, Court-Plaster, Saffron, 
Butter, Cheese, Putty, Starch, Felt, and Porcelain. Many 
others might be added. 

The 33d lesson introduces the Metals, with the following ob- 
servations : — " In these lessons on the common metals, it is 
necessary to present the specimens to the class in their several 
natural and artificial states; that is to say, the native ores and 
the manufactured metals. The teacher would find the interest 
of the pupils awakened by the examination of the several sub- 
stances, and consequently would find them more imclined to re- 
ceive, with profit, the information conveyed. The plan of writ- 
ing down the list of cjua'ities is again adopted with the metals, 
as they lead to a new range of ideas, and forming very decided- 
ly the characteristic distinctions of the substances." The first 
metal treated of is Gold. It is a perfect metal, malleable, duc- 
tile, tenacious, heavy, fusible, incombustible, except by electrici- 
ty. A solid piece of gold, and a piece of gold-leaf, are. shown ; 
the almost incredible ductility of gold explained ; and its resist- 
ance to all acids except aqua regia, a mixture of the muriatic 



108 INCIDENTAL READING. 

and nitric acids. Of course, at this stage, such ideas as electri- 
city and chymieal acids, must be anticipated, the pupils being 
promised a subsequent acquaintance with them. Then comes 
the uses of gold in coinage and ornament, ' as lace, gilding of 
metals and porcelain, the mode of beating it out, &c. The les- 
son concludes with the geographical localities of the metal, and 
its geological and mining description. In this way are treated, 
in successive lessons, illustrated by exhibition, Silver, Mercu- 
ry — with the Thermometer and Barometer — Lead, Copper, Iron 3 
Steel, Cast-iron, and Tin. 

The 40th lesson compares metals with each other, which 
brings in the doctrine, illustrated practically, of specific gravity. 

The 41st lesson, one of much interest, is on the attributes of 
metals in general; their metallic lustre, sonorousness, weight, 
ductility, tenacity ; their combinations and alloys in metallurgy, 
or the working of meta!s. This is followed by questions on all 
the metals, as an exercise. What are the chief qualities and 
properties of gold, silver, &c. 1 How is gold beaten out 1 How 
are buttons gilt ? What is lunar caustic? What are the spe- 
cific gravities of gold, silver, tin, lead, &c. 

The 42d lesson takes up the Earths ; Lime and its many com- 
binations, animal, vegetable, and mineral ; Alumine or Argil, with 
all its applications, in bricks, pottery, &c. to the use of man. 
The remaining lessons are on Coal, Granite, Salt ; Slate, and 
Coral. 

I have been thus minute, I trust not tedious, from my convic- 
tion that a summary of the whole system is necessary to its due 
appreciation. Of this I do feel assured, that the pupils will not 
weary of it; but that, connected as it ought to be, with a well 
ventilated school room and exercising ground, with active gym- 
nastics, varied with other studies to be mentioned, and communi- 
cated by the teacher in a friendly, cheerful, and exciting man- 
ner, it will be a delight to the young students ; put the barbarous 
artificial stimulants of punishments, place-taking, medals, and 
prizes, for ever out of fashion, and render these matter of curious 
history to the better taught pupil, associated with the foolish 
methods of education, which, however incredible it may be to 
him, did once prevail in society. It is plain that all the intellec- 
tual faculties have their turn of exercise in these five series of 
lessons, that exercise constituting high enjoyment, and being, 
from its very nature, inexhaustible. 

Continuing the process of incidental reading, all the words 
and descriptions of the objects in the different series should be 
presented in a printed and written form to the pupils ; thus their 
reading would be improved; and, by the time the whole lessons 
are finished, which may require perhaps a year or more, the pu- 
pils, assisted by occasional reading in classes under monitors^ 



INCIDENTAL METHOD — CHYMISTRY. 109 

may easily have attained the power of reading any English book. 
Grammar, by parsing, should be incidentally taught. Mr. Biber 
has shown the Pestalozzian course concisely and clearly, and to 
his work I must be contented with a reference. It is obvious 
that, by the incidental method, knowledge of an object and its 
qualities, its name pronounced, read, and written down, its de- 
scription read and parsed, are occupations and exercises all pro- 
ceeding at the same time, and actually aiding each other. In 
the connexion of nature's parts in one harmonious whole, to 
teach incidentally is to teach naturally. The saving of time and 
labour must be so obvious, and the unity and co-operation of in- 
tellectual exercise so advantageous, th at a judicious and exten- 
sive application of the Incidental Method seems indispensable 
to the success of popular education. The pupils ought not to be 
tasked and annoyed with the absurdity of that laborious and 
generally abortive exercise, learning 'to spell. They do not 
need to spell till they come to write ; and spelling is never at- 
tained by the common sehool process, but by habitual perusal of 
the words in reading. No one who reads much can remain a 
bad orthographer, and no one writes much who has not previ- 
ously read much more. 

Although, from Dr. Mayo's series of lessons, a large field of 
qualities in nature has been gone through, there ought to follow 
an introduction to the primary substances of material nature as 
ascertained by chymistry; and lessons on the presence and 
combination of these substances in the articles or objects already 
submitted to the pupil's consideration. Another period of school 
should accordingly be devoted to a minute and thorough practi- 
cal familiarity with substances in nature, solid, fluid, and gaseous, 
so that the pupil may know them as well as he is now made to 
know the tenses of a verb, or the declensions of a noun. The 
progress from the substance to their relations, combinations, and 
results in chymistry, is easy and natural, so that a broad and use- 
ful foundation of chymical knowledge may be laid at an age 
when little more than Latin Words are, by the present system, 
stored up ; and it will take -a better and more permanent hold of 
the memory than Latin words are found to do. Experiments 
will impress the varieties of chymical action, namely, attraction, 
cohesion, crystallization, combination, decomposition, the nature 
and' effects of heat, &c. the gases, the acids, the alkalies, the 
earths, the metals, the chymistry of vegetable and animal sub- 
stances ; in short, the elements of chymistry may be fully and 
lastingly communicated. 

Before proceeding farther with, external nature, it appears that 
this would be the proper time to introduce the pupils to a subject 
hitherto unheard of in schools, and misunderstood in colleges, 
and that subject is themselves. Without this all else is use- 

10 



110 STUDY OP MAN WITHIN REACH OF THE YOUNG?. 

less. Why should the teacher stop with the five senses? Why 
should not the pupil, who has reached nine or ten years of age, 
begin to know the faculties of his mind 1 Is there any thing in 
those, for example, which have been detailed in this treatise, 
which may not be made as plain to him as the lessons on objects 
and their qualities 1 There is no need for leading him deeply 
into metaphysical inquiry on the functions of his faculties : a 
simple elementary knowledge of them and their everyday modes 
of operation, above all, their inseparable connexion with their 
related objects, might be impressed on his mind in such a manner 
as not only to be perfectly comprehended by him, but firmly im- 
pressed on his memory, and applied in his ordinary experience. 
This branch should constitute a paramount object of concern 
with the teacher ; he should spare no pains to put his pupils com- 
pletely and intelligently in possession of it. The transition will 
be easy from the analysis of the faculties to their ethical combi- 
nation, made plain to the young in their daily intercourse. I 
have seen the experiment tried on children under twelve years 
of age with the most flattering success ; they have manifested a 
knowledge and estimate of motives, and a readiness in appreciat-. 
ing, and even regulating conduct, far above what the great mass 
of the " educated' 1 ever dreamed of being necessary to intelli- 
gent existence. The same children, it must farther be observed, 
kept a faithful register of their own conduct, by entries in the 
"Record of Duties," already referred to. 

As a part of themselves, the pupils may, with great ease and 
advantage, be familiarized with the general structure of their 
own bodies, the functions of the digestive and other organs, 
which bear the most obvious relation to the preservation of health 
and strength ; while uncleanly and unwholesome habits may be 
set prominently before their eyes, with their effects on health 
and life fully spread out to their view. For example, the effects 
of excessive indulgence in ardent spirits might, by drawings and 
preparations, be so plainly portrayed, and so often pressed on 
the notice, as to afford a lesson, available for life ; so that if the 
individual should sin in after years, he should not sin in igno- 
rance. The habitual recommendation, accompanied with rea- 
sons and expositions of consequences referable to the organic 
laws, of cleanly and wholesome habits in ablutions, ventilation, 
&c, will soon tell practically on the pupils, and a great change 
will be effected even among the working classes.* 

* Dr. Andrew Combe, in his "Principles of Physiology," a work 
which cannot be too strongly recommended to every family and school 
in the empire, suggests to manufacturers to establish for their work- 
men the means of bathing.. If time were given them they will willing- 
ly bathe, and will enjoy cleanliness, healthy skin, and less craving for 
the stimulus of spirits. The waste hot water of a steam- engine would 



GEOGRAPHY ASTRONOMY — CIVIL HISTORY. Ill 

All this time the course is proceeding of instruction in geo- 
graphy, the use of the globes, and the simpler elements of 
astronomy; so that at least the planetary system shall be made 
perfectly familiar. The pupil certainly should not leave school 
ignorant of the simpler phenomena of the heavens; and this 
knowledge can be given incidentally to or following up geogra- 
phy. He should understand and see illustrated, by the planeta- 
rium and orrery, the relation of the Earth and the other planets 
to the Sun, and of the Moon and Earth to each other ; he should 
be aware of. the rotation of the earth, at the rale of 1000 miles 
an hour at the equator, and its course round an orbit of 584 mil- 
lions of miles in a year; being 1,600,000 miles a-day, 66,600 in 
an hour, 1100 in a minute, and 18 in a second ; he should be in- 
formed of the course of comets, — the phases of the moon, — the 
solar and lunar eclipses, — the calculations of time, — the ecliptic 
and seasons, — the vast distance of the fixed stars, and the im- 
mensity of creation. No kind of knowledge more tends to ex- 
pand the ideas of Omnipotence than astronomy, and to dispel 
limited and unworthy impressions of the Creator ; no one should 
be ignorant that space is necessarily infinite, because there can 
foe no point of space without a point beyond it; that our instru- 
ments have discovered eighty millions of fixed stars, every star a 
sun, probably with attendant planets invisible to us, but, it may 
be, ten times eighty, or 800 millions in number ; when, after all, 
if space be infinite and replenished with orbs in a proportionate 
degree with that part of it within our ken, the 80 millions of 
suns and 800 millions of planets, must be relatively but a speck 
in creation, whose annihilation would be an event of relative in 
significance.* 

Writing and calculating will continue to be practised ; and En- 
glish reading, with attention to its grammar, and even to its elo- 
cution ; . for, in a well conducted system,, several advantages may 
be reaped from one and the same act of instruction. The Scrip- 
tures will of course be read. Civil history should not be 
omitted in our seminary ; but in the manner in which it should 
be rendered a study, it is decidedly for riper years. — I should 
recommend little more, under and at puberty, than a chronologi- 
cal skeleton of it, that the pupil may know the tribes and nations 
that peopled the earth before his own time, with a very general 
account of them; and certainly, for reasons to be stated in the 

give them easily the means of warm bathing once or 'twice a-week. 
This was actually done at the Lochrin Distillery, near Edinburgh, 
during the prevalence of Cholera. 

* Mr. Fulton, in exhibiting his beautiful orrery, impresses the rela- 
tive magnitude of the Earth and Sun on the spectators, by stating that 
the ball representing the earth being 2 inches diameter, the brass globe 
for the sun would require to he 19 feet, 



112 GEOMETRY — MECHANICAL SCIENCE. 

sequel, as little of the details of their history as possible, or just 
as much as shall suffice to mark and distinguish each people. 
How history ought tc be written and studied, will itself form the 
subject of a short chapter immediately after the present. 

In our pursuit of nature, the relations of geometry, without 
which a mason or carpenter cannot take a step in his trade, are 
well worthy of a portion of the pupil's attention. There is no 
occasion to go deep into mathematics ; but some knowledge, in 
addition to that of elementary figures, imparted in the infant 
school, — of angles, triangles, squares, parallelograms, perpendicu- 
lars, horizontals, &c, of the relations, of these, and of the 
demonstration of these relations, may be given to the more 
advanced classes of our seminary. The grand object with regard 
to all these branches of study ought to be, — and the aid of able 
men will be necessary to sketch out the plan for each, — to render 
the teaching of the subject or science elementarily broad and 
comprehensive, leaving minute details for after voluntary study. 
For example, in geometry, the study should not be some books 
of Euclid, and then a stop, but a general notion of the science as 
applied to planes and solids, as a basis for after detailed study ; 
but sufficient to render the subject intelligible, and of easy applica- 
tion to the avocations of future life, in surveying, carpentry, &c, 
and easily extended when more minute information is wanted. 

Provided with the elements of geometry, the pupil, probably 
now in his second last or last year, is prepared for practical les- 
sons in the elements of mechanical science. Nothing can be 
of easier or more delightful acquisition, and nothing is more com- 
mon, than for young persons of from twelve to fourteen eagerly 
to pursue the study, and perfectly comprehend it. - Lessons, with 
illustrative experiments, will be given on the mechanical proper- 
ties of matter, its extension., impenetrability, divisibility, porosity, 
gravity, inertia, — on gravitation and cohesion, — on statics, equi- 
librium, composition and resolution of forces, and the science of 
the centres of gravity, percussion and oscillation, — on mechanics 
and the mechanical powers, — on the strength and strain of ma- 
terials, and the principles of carpentry, — on dynamics, motion, 
falling bodies, the pendulum, clocks, &c, — on central forces, — 
on hydrostatics, fluidity, pressure of fluids, conducting of water 
from a distance, &c, — on hydraulics or the power of water, 
water-wheels, &c. — on pneumatics and the practical applications 
of the elasticity of the air, air-pumps, water-pumps, syphon, &c. 
*-on acoustics and the philosophy of sound, — on optics, colours, 
reflection, refraction, lenses, telescope and miscroscope, — on 
electricity, galvanism, and magnetism, — on the steam engine, 
&c. Well conducted experiments will both impress the truths 
and increase their interest. 

The foregoing enumeration is minute, that the reader may 



NATURAL HISTORY NATURAL THEOLOGY. 113 

have under his eye the kind of knowledge comprised in mechani- 
cal science, and judge how important it is to resource in life. 
Likewise that he may judge whether there is any thing in it which 
may not be taught to the young. There is no part of the study 
so intricate or difficult as a Greek verb, to say nothing of its in- 
trinsic attractions. 

The time allotted to school may be made to include an elemen- 
tary knowledge of natural history, or nature's external fea- 
tures, either preceding or following the study of nature's se- 
crets, as they are called, in chymistry and mechanical philosophy. 
It is a common, and not an ill-founded opinion, that natural his- 
tory is better understood with the aid of the other sciences men- 
tioned. The pupil, in this branch, will learn to distinguish the 
animal, vegetable, and mineral kingdoms, the atmosphere and its 
phenomena, the winds, the ocean with its tides and currents, the 
discoveries of geology, the nature of animals and plants, &c. 

Blended essentially with the whole of the branches of know- 
ledge now enumerated, and capable of being imparted incident- 
ally with an effect at once edifying and delightful, is natural 
theology. The teacher ought to be perfectly qualified to impress 
that important knowledge, as he enlightens his pupil on the Crea- 
tor's works, with all their benevolent adaptations. He would 
require to return to these works were he to teach natural theology 
as a separate branch ; so that he will save that repetition, and 
teach the subject better, besides commanding yet another means 
of impressing more efficiently natural knowledge itself, by point- 
ing to the agency and design of the Creator as the key-note to 
the entire composition of his instructions, the diapason to all the 
harmonies of nature which science unfolds, the highest and best 
end and object of the application of our faculties to the attainment 
of truth. It is in relation to the Great Artificer, that universal na- 
ture grows upon our opening eyes as one exquisitely harmonious 
system. • It is man that divides nature's phenomena into branch- 
es of study, and calls them chymistry, mechanical philosophy,, 
natural history. Nature has no such divisions ; her laws pro- 
ceed" in exquisite order and beauty, independently of the artifi- 
cial mode in which man observes them ; while the wisdom, 
power, and goodness of the Creator inhere in every part of the 
great system, and illumine and gild, as they make plain, its stu- 
pendous fabric. It is in this beautiful, this essential, this neces- 
sary way, that the pupils of our school must become natural 
theologists ; and adding to that knowledge, or rather that habit or 
frame of mind, an improved moral, their preparation for Christian 
instruction will, as far as human means can make it, be complete. 

There will bean immense advance when knowledge is thus 
simplified and referred to Nature, and not considered as existing 
onlv within the walls of colleges, known by conventional names, 
J 10* 



114 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

and taught to full grown men alone, whom it is meant to distin- 
guish from all others by the name of philosophers. Every sane 
person ought to know the obvious works of God, and modes of 
his manifestation ; and every person may become acquainted 
with these in youth, with ease and pleasure. 

Incidentally, throughout the whole time of the pupil in the 
school, and particularly in the latter years of his attendance, he 
should receive much and anxious instruction on the subject of 
his political state and his position as a member of the social 
system. There is no greater novelty in education than this; 
hitherto 4 here has been an utter blank here. The elder pupils 
should be perfectly familiar with their social rights and duties, 
the principles and simpler practice of the constitution and go- 
vernment, the functions of representative and of electors, the na- 
ture and powers of judicial establishments, the trial by jury, and 
the functions of magistrates, justices of the peace, and officers 
of the law, of all ranks and degrees. There is nothing in all 
this that a boy of twelve years of age may not comprehend and 
store up as knowledge as easily as he would translate Cesar. 
The knowledge should be given him in a series of lessons, and 
his progress ascertained by repeated examinations : and when 
he shall come to exercise his rights as a citizen, his early elemen- 
tary training will be of great value to him. 

Lessons on political economy, the nature and principles of 
trade, commerce, manufactures, and money, will follow elementary 
views of political condition. Liberal relations may then be in- 
culcated, and all the self-defeating prejudice and selfishness of 
dealing among nations and individuals anticipated and prevented. 
National antipathies ought to be especially reprobated. There are 
a few plain principles of political economy of which no individual 
ought to be ignorant, such as the balance of demand and supply, 
the doctrine of wages, of employer and workman, the economy of 
labour, the division of labour, the effect of competition, of over- 
trading, of machinery, of poor-laws, and pauperism, with all its 
degradation when not induced by unavoidable misfortune, &c. 
Miss Martineau is immortalized-by her ingenious and exciting 
method of recommending this hitherto esteemed dry subject. She 
has shown that political economy mingles intimately with every- 
day life, and that its results can. form the basis of narratives of 
great interest. I know of no way in which the subject could be 
better taught than by a course of that singular lady's small vo- 
lumes, with her summary of principles in the last pages of each ; 
every principle is connected with its application to reality, and 
remembered the better for that connexion : the student at our 
school would not merely read the volumes as tales, but would be 
made to dwell on each as lessons, and treasure up every incident 
and every principle for use in after life, 

There are some questions upon the whole system, which the 



EDUCATION FOR ALL. 115 

reader may feel inclined to ask. 1st, In the foregoing exposi- 
tion of education as adapted to the faculties, he may have 
thought that the Knowing powers alone have been provided for. 
To that I answer, that they have mainly, for the period of edu- 
cation treated of is the period of their greatest activity, the 
time to sow broadly and abundantly the seed of knowledge. 
But the reflecting powers have not been idle ; every day and 
every hour of the day, opportunities of exercising these, in com- 
parison and necessary consequence, must occur, and the judi- 
cious teacher will never omit the occasion of doing so, and en- 
couraging in his pupils, manifestations of good sense and saga- 
city, another word for the reflective process. He ought to be 
"full of wise saws and modern instances," that is, he should be 
able to test an occurrence, and clinch an advice, with a maxim 
or proverb ; this mode of rendering wisdom readily available 
has been subject to unmerited reproach, as a vulgar habit; this 
is nonsense ; nothing is vulgar that 'is truly useful ; it may be 
unnecessary, and therefore annoying, to repeat obvious maxims 
upon all occasions to those who know them as well as the re- 
peater, in the way that Sancho distinguished himself; but a store 
of them in the mind for use and application, not for display — -and 
there are several good selections published, — will be found of 
great practical value. 

2d, The reader may farther ask, is the above curriculum to 
be passed through by all pupils, without regard to the differ- 
ences of talent, turns, and capabilities 1 The answer to this 
is affirmative. Whatever may be the particular power of 
mind or aptitude of body which points out a marked line for an 
individual's future life, no one will surely say, that he is to have 
no other education but on that specific object; for example, mu- 
sic, painting, sculpture, mechanics, classics. If his particular 
talent has not absorbed all the rest of his mind, which would 
render him a cretin or an idiot with one faculty working like an 
instinct, he has other faculties to be educated ; he has, in truth, 
all the faculties, and it does not require the highest degree of en- 
dowment of them to follow out all the branches of education, 
instrumentary and real, which have been allotted, both to our in- 
fant and advanced school. His particular talent will not be di- 
minished but aided by his general acquirements ; his Creator 
has given him all his talents for use, and the education now pro- 
posed is the very use of them, as pointed out by their nature 
and relations, which has been designed. All should, if possible, 
be brought up to one elevated level of knowledge and morality ; 
and from that advanced position genius may take its new and 
higher flight. Nothing will more tend to bring out that genius 
into bold relief than the school training now proposed : so that 
there will be no searching about for it at the period of puberty. 



11(5 CAPACITIES OP INFANTS. 

No previous time will then have been lost, and the start to far- 
ther attainments in the marked line of the special talent will be 
immediate, well directed, and energetic. No provision can or 
ought to be made for particular lines in the general seminary.. 
The schools for particular talents must and ought to be subse- 
quent apprenticeship to the pursuits respectively. I do not an- 
ticipate any difficulty on this head when the subject is so plain ; 
and, therefore, with the reader's permission shall leave it. 

3d, It may be again asked, is it not extravagant to expect 
that so much educational work, as has been laid out for the ad- 
vanced seminary, can be done, at least to purpose, at so early, an 
age as from six to fourteen ? To this it is answered^ that there 
is no extravagance in expecting that that shall be done, for the 
accomplishment of which we have both principle* and experi- 
ence. The faculties are competent at the age in question to 
achieve that for which they were given to man, and then most 
pointedly rendered acute and active. As this is a most import- 
ant question, and one which has the highest and strongest bar- 
riers of old habits of thinking to overleap, the reader is earnest- 
ly requested to apply his reflecting powers attentively and im- 
partially to it ; keeping in view that, if it be impracticable to 
educate up to the point proposed in eight years, from six to 
fourteen, all idea of popular education must be abandoned. If 
ignorance prevails, to the admitted extent of a blank on the im- 
portant subject of the human faculties, there is no wonder that 
the mental capabilities of children have been erroneously esti- 
mated. The training to which they are at present subjected, not 
only does nothing to call out their faculties, but sends them to 
sleep in a drowsy system of reading and spelling words; so that 
they suffer that diminution of activity and force for life, which 
unexercised nerves and muscles entail on the bodily frame. It 
was to be expected, that when we well nigh annihilate the facul- 
ties of children, we should doubt their existence. 

The sagacious active Wilderspin has thrown a flood of light 
on this hitherto obscure question* His infants manifest, at six 
years of age, the knowing, and to some extent the reflecting 
faculties, far beyond the pupils of the common schools, at double 
their age. In his work on infant education, he notices the pro- 
found ignorance which prevails on the capacities of infants, and 
has made good his right to do so by the irrefragable facts he 
• advances, from his own fifteen years' experience. Much of the 
useful knowledge desiderated is obtained in the infant school, 
and four years saved which at present are worse than lost ; and 
when the pupil passes on to the advanced seminary, which is 
constituted on the principle of systematic progress, the degree 
of his exertions and the extent of his acquisitions cannot be con- 
ceived by those who have only witnessed ' the drawling waste of 



CAPACITIES FROM SIX TO FOURTEEN. 117 

time which, in most schools, for there are exceptions, is called 
children's education.* Again, there is nothing in the whole 
course of our advanced school which may not be perfectly un- 
derstood and practically applied by pupils from twelve to four- 
teen ; and making provision, as is proposed, for gradations of 
occupation, there is much for which the age from ten to twelve 
is perfectly well adapted ; While there are divisions of employ- 
ment for the other two periods, of from eight to ten, and six to 
eight. Classical difficulties, far beyond the simple exposition of 
natural truths, are mastered by boys of ten or twelve years of 
age, if the stimulants of prizes and punishments — there are no 
other motives — are rendered sufficiently pungent. There is 
nothing in the facts of creation, illustrated to the senses by ex- 
periment, which is not of as easy comprehension as the objects 
and arrangements of a boy's voluntary amusements ; he adapts 
his fishing-tackle to the conditions of angling; he studies the 
weather, the stream, the habits of the fish, and many other cir- 
cumstances, and can instruct others in their practical appli- 
cation : he is a master, too, in the natural history of rabbits, 
pigeons, and pets in general ; he gets up a private theatre, paints 
the scenes, and writes the pieces ; his spot of ground is the best 
kept and the most productive in his father's garden ; and for 
mischief and fun, he can lay a train of circumstances, moral and • 
physical, which, when he comes to spring his mine upon the de- 
voted wight for whose peculiar benefit he has taken so much 
trouble and expended so much genius, he has often done more 
than if, engaged in practical chymistry under Dr. Reid,f he had 
finished a set of glass-retorts with a blowpipe, and applied them 
in a dozen chymical experiments. In short, although the re- 
flecting powers are in frequent requisition incidentally in our 
curriculum, the knowing are chiefly in exercise in storing up 
knowledge and gaining address, and there is no period of life 
when they are in greater vigour than at and about puberty. It 
will not be a smattering which will be gained, — another objec- 
tion ; — it is forgotten that, besides the infant school groundings 
eight years are proposed to be devoted to the advanced school 

* One of these exceptions, for there are several, is the Circus-Place 
School in Edinburgh, where realities are taught. 

1 1 allude to this distinguished chymist's large and scientifically con- 
structed laboratory in Edinburgh, unequalled in Europe, for- practice in 
chymistry, in which every pupil performs nearly 2000 experiments 
with his own hands. Dr. Reid was, moreover, the first, here, to give 
chymical instruction to young people, as I have good access to know. 
He has had pupils younger than fourteen who made efficient progress 
under his tuition ; and he has assured me of the perfect success of that 
early study. Not only chymistry but mechanical philosophy have'been 
partially introduced into some grammar schools, in deference to the 
demands of the age. 



118 SCIENCE AND MANHOOD- 

cours3. Under competent instracters no branch will be permit- 
ted to be superficially attained ; there is time, and there ought to 
be means to render the acquisition of each subject complete up 
to the pitch of the pupil's powers. It is under the present sys- 
tem that every thing is superficial, smattering, and forgotten. 
Another prejudicaarises from our erroneous habits of .thinking ; 
we -associate science, even in its restricted sense of knowledge 
of nature, with manhood. We have been accustomed to see it 
the pursuit of the advanced students of College, and therefore 
conclude that manhood alone is competent to it. It is easy to 
see why it has become the occupation of manhood : under the 
old system, the dead languages absurdly took its place at the 
period which nature points out for it; and this is precisely the 
waste of time which is deplored. When a new and better sys- 
tem shall prove the perfect capability of the young for scientific 
attainments, (these being divested of all the quackery and mys- 
tery through which we have been accustomed to view them, and 
called plainly and properly knowledge of nature, in its simple 
beauty and most obvious harmony,) our habits of thinking will 
be greatly improved on this important subject. But the question 
is not limited to an a priori argument ; the trial has been made in 
various establishments to be afterward mentioned, and the suc- 
cess has been fully up to what on principle might have been ex- 
pected. It cannot be too earnestly impressed on the attention of 
educationists, and of the legislature, that an early introduction 
to nature is the life and soul — the sine qua non — of popular edu- 
cation. 

Aih, Many may be inclined, on reflection "and the conviction of 
demonstration, to surrender their ancient association of natural 
knowledge with manhood, who yet may be positively impracti- 
cable upon the wild theory of teaching all that has been pro- 
posed to all ranks of the people. This is really too much, they 
say ; What occasion can a man, who is to work at a handicraft 
trade, have for a course of chymistry, mechanical philosophy, or 
natural history ] Will it make him a better tailor, carpenter, or 
blacksmith 1 Will it not, on the contrary, tend to raise his 
ideas of life, and tempt him to despise labour, and be discontent- 
ed with his condition % The answer to all this, humbly offered 
is, that it will materially improve and facilitate his trade"; but it 
will do much more, — It will elevate his character, improve his 
social condition, and render him both a better -and a happier 
man. A scientific knowledge of nature will suggest to the 
manual labourer improved and abridged modes of working, 
counteraction of unwholesome trades, in materials, posture, at- 
mosphere, &c. ; it will show him the value of cleanly habits* 
fresh air, arid muscular exercise, and the physical sufferings re- 
sulting from excess, vice, and especially the abuse of ardent 



SCIENCE TAUGHT TO THE WORKING CLASSES. 119 

spirits. It will elevate the character of the labourer, for it will 
humanize him, improvs the furniture of his mind, by substitut- 
ing truth and) interesting subjects of thought for superstitions, 
prejudices, and all sorts of impracticabilities ; deliver him out of 
the hands of impostors, political, fanatical, medical and literary ; 
qualify him for a wise use of the elective franchise, afford him 
delightful employment for his leisure from toil ; exalt his im- 
pressions of his God, and render his religion sincere and practi- 
cal. If he is to spend several years at school, if he is not to be 
set at once to learn the kind of toil called his trade, and doom- 
ed, all beyond, to deepest ignorance, what better can he learn 
than the objects of nature, and his own relation to them'? At 
the least, he is no worse for this improved store in his mind, the 
acquisition of which has been a source of delight to his earlier 
years, and has effected a decided melioration of his general 
character. 

The objection that his mind will be too refined for his pursuits, 
and that he will be discontented, is not less unreflecting. It is 
the ignorant who are discontented, who have false views of their 
condition, who are unable to reject the representations of the 
designing, that have an interest in creating discontent, and 
moving violence. Deep discontent prevails at this moment 
among the working classes in spite of all their ignorance ; 
nay it is their ignorance which is the barrier to the remov- 
al of their discontent. Knowledge of nature, and their own 
relation to it, of their true place in the social system, of the 
means of greatly improving their own enjoyments, physical, mo- 
ral, and intellectual, of the truth that well regulated labour is no 
evil, but is capable of being rendered a source of health and plea- 
sure, that the sum of goods accumulated and annually produced, 
equally divided, would afford but a moderate portion to each in- 
dividual of an immense population, that therefore, in the nature 
of things, a very few can attain to riches, and that riches, after 
all, do not purchase more real happiness than the reward of la- 
bour can procure to the contented mind ; — all this knowledge 
operating as a permanent frame of mind and habit of thinking, 
will show to the working man the absurdity of envying and hat- 
ing all superior fortune, and living as he now does, but will not 
do when more enlightened, in avowed and almost irreconcilable 
hostility to all above him in condition. Those who urge that dis- 
content will result from knowledge, would no doubt wish the times 
of vassalage and popery restored, when the ignorant peasant was 
the passive slave of his liege-lord and his priest ; but as in the 
course of human progress this is as much out of the question as 
restoring the fourteenth century, the question comes to be, what 
is the course now, in the actual state of the people ] If they are 
not contented in their ignorance, the effect of their enlighten- 



120 dr. drummond's view. 

merit is surely worth a trial : and the human faculties were creat- 
ed in vain, if the experiment should be found to fail. 

Perhaps the greatest novelty in this volume, next to the pro- 
position of teaching the science of man, is that of training the 
manual-labour class to a knowledge of nature. I earnestly beg 
that it may not be hastily rejected upon present impressions ; for it 
will be found to be a' powerful engine of popular improvement. 
Dr. Drummond,* in his "Letters to a young Naturalist on the Study 
of Nature and Natural Theology," says,—" You will perhaps treat 
the idea of teaching matters of science to people generally as chi- 
merical ; but be not over hasty. It is still too common a persua- 
sion that knowledge should be a monopoly, belonging solely to the 
learned and highly educated ; but there is a vast fund of information 
of the very highest value, which can be understood by persons 
who have had little previous tutoring either in school or univer- 
sity. There is a vast mass of knowledge which admits of easy 
explanation, and which could be comprehended by men of the 
most moderate education ; and why is it withheld from them ? 
Is the sun still to shine in the heavens, the planets to roll in their 
orbits, the comets to shoot beyond imagination's wing" into the 
regions of space, and the constellations to sparkle for ever in the 
canopy of night ; and yet our brethren of the human race, a very 
small portion excepted, know no more about them than merely 
that they are the sun and stars'? Will it be said that the great 
truths of astronomy can only be made plain to the understandings 
of those who are profound methematicians and philosophers? 
There are lengths in every science, indeed, which can only be 
gained by long and deep study, but although it required a New- 
ton to unfold the mysteries of the planetary motions, as guided 
and controlled by the law of gravitation, still these motions, and 
most of the sublime facts of astronomy, can be comprehended by 
the bulk of the people from plain illustrations, given in plain and 
perspicuous language. But of this and of nature in general, they 
are kept in deep ignorance. Simple truths, when simply ex- 
plained, are more easily comprehended than is commonly suppos- 
ed ; and I feel satisfied that the task of teaching mankind in 
general, such solid and various knowledge as could tend most 
powerfully to advance both civilization and morality, is any- 
thing but hopeless. Knowledge has been truly said by Bacon to 
be power; and with equal, if not with greater, truth, it may be 
asserted, that when pursued with a reference to the God of all 
knowledge, it is virtue." 

&ih, Suppose all our objectors satisfied en the points already 
treated of, it is not to be expected that there will not remain 
many more who will treat with ridicule the idea of proposing, 

* Professor of Anatomy and Physiology in the Belfast Academy. 



SCIENCE TAUGHT TO FEMALES. 121 

with slight modifications, the same education for females as for ■ 
males, from two years of age to fourteen. If they shall ask 
why should this be 1 I would throw the burden of proof on them, 
and ask in turn, why should it not be ? Why should the facul- 
ties of females, which are the same as the faculties of males, be 
deprived of the intellectual food which is intended for them 1 
If the cultivation of these faculties shall elevate the male charac- 
ter, will it not likewise elevate the female, and, through the ele- 
vation of the female character, unspeakably benefit society 1 All 
the moral training proposed for the one sex will be granted to be 
proper and necessary for the other, but not less is the intellectual ; 
a proposition, it is humbly thought, too self-evident to need illus- 
tration. I shall therefore say no more on the subject, till I 
shall meet with reasons for continuing the mockery of education 
which is given to females, more cogent than that it has always 
been the good old way.* I have much pleasure in referring to 
an eloquent address by Mrs. Willard to the Legislature of New- 
York, on the subject of female education. It contains a severe 
satire on the dominant sex for their share in female degradation. 

To gain the great object in view, it will afterward be shown 
that, by national arrangements, the whole period of twelve years 
must be devoted by the children of the manual-labour class to 
school education. Earlier engrossing labour must, by every 
possible means, be discouraged and prevented. Without this, 
the time actually bestowed will be lost, and harm instead of 
good will be done. 

Two requisites,- — neither of them yet in existence, — must be 
realized in order to the success of the novel course of education 
which has now been proposed, — and these are books and teach- 
ers. There are talent, knowledge, and judgment in the country, 
to frame the one and train the other. Committed to several 
qualified men, with principles and plan well marked out for their 
guidance, an educational code might be drawn up, which, in- 
stead of the miserable diversity which now prevails, would se- 
cure uniformity all over the country, and limit the subjects of 
study to useful elements, applicable to the affairs of life, or ca- 
pable of being made the basis of farther attainments. The whole 
curriculum might be laid out, almost to every day's employment, 

* An unreflecting outcry has been raised, on the score of indelicacy, 
against imparting the knowledge of physioLogy to females, although 
on them devolves the earliest care of human health. The most sensi- 
tive female who, among at least 100, heard Mr. Brown's attractive and 
eloquent lectures on this subject, delivered this winter in Edinburgh, 
and saw his drawings of the vital organs, will agree with me, for I at- 
tended the course, in declaring, that there was not the shadow of in- 
delicacy, — except in the outcry. 

11 



122 TRAINING OE TEACHERS. 

lessons and experiments directed, and the teacher himself pre- 
vented from wasting time in unauthorized instruction. 

The training of teachers is vital to the whole system. At 
present ^ny one who professes to teach is eo ipso believed quali- 
fied; when every other trade fails, one can always open a school! 
When we consider what the qualifications of an efficient teacher 
ought to be, this state of matters will appear in all its glaring ab- 
surdity. A crazy and ragged orator some time ago applied at 
the mansion-house for a few shillings and a pair of shoes, to 
take him back to Ireland, seeing he had found the pretensions of 
this island to learning exceedingly hollow. In his harangue to 
the Lord Mayor he observed, with exquisite and most appropri- 
ate sarcasm, " that he had heard much of the schoolmaster being 
abroad in England, but that he had not had the good fortune to 
find any body who had met with him !" Wiser men make the 
same complaint, not from the difficulty of meeting the schoolrrfas- 
ter, but from the uselessness of the schoolmaster when he is 
fallen in with. Besides educating the schoolmaster, we must 
raise him in society to the rank and endowments befitting his 
usefulness. The humble estimation of that profession at present 
arises from the prevalent feeling of their slender claims to con- 
sideration. A teacher qualified to conduct such a seminary as 
has been described, is entitled to a high social place, and he 
must and will take it. I have alluded here to the requisite of 
teacher-training, though not strictly in place, in order to remove 
a grand obstacle to the reception of the principles propounded : 
as part of the machinery of a practical plan, the subject belongs 
to another chapter. 

I have found some difficulty in forming an opinion of the ex- 
pediency of industry-train ing either ingrafted upon, or separate 
from, the seminary which I have described. Highly as I am 
disposed to think of the School of Industry at Lewes, in Sussex, 
and the American Manual-Labour Schools, described in Wood- 
bridge's American Annals of Education and Instruction (1830- 
31), I am very doubtful of their compatibility with the curricu- 
lum of moral and intellectual training proposed in this chapter. 
In neither plan is the same kind or degree of education proposed 
for the working-classes, which has now been detailed as practi- 
cable and essential to their moral and intellectual elevation. If 
schools of industry are apprenticeships to trades, it is plain they 
are superfluous, as well as inefficient — the best apprenticeship 
being to a master of the trade, to be engaged in after the school 
periodus finished. It was never clear that the pupils of Fellen- 
berg were fitted for ordinary life by all the formal arrangements 
for their labour at Hofwyl. A certain degree of elementary la- 
bour might be ingrafted upon our advanced seminary, and re- 



SERVANTS — ULTERIOR EDUCATION LANGUAGES. 123 

sorted to as a mode of exercise, in a piece of ground for the pur- 
pose ; the mode of handling particular implements and instru- 
ments might be practised, and a ready conversion of common 
materials into ordinary accommodations, an exercise rather for 
the ?^0^^-manual labourer of after life, who will have no other op- 
portunity, than for the intended manual labourer wbo is destined 
for an apprenticeship ; but available to all as a means of health. 
The only occupation of the manual-labour class for which there 
is no apprenticeship, is that of domestic service, in all its parts. 
Separate establishments for servants of both sexes would be 
very desirable to the public refusing to engage as servants any 
one not so trained. At all events, as schools for training to la- 
bour do not necessarily form part of a plan of national education, 
I deem it unnecessary to proceed farther with that subject. A 
library should belong to each school. 

ULTERIOR EDUCATION. 

The pupil has now left the advanced school, at fourteen years 
of age ; and, in relation to a system of popular education, we 
must take our leave of him. He goes to manual labour, or a 
preparation for it ; but he is still within the influence of an en- 
lightened press, in cheap literature, and of lectures on science 
for his leisure hours. The Edinburgh Association for cheap 
lectures is an admirable continuance of the workman's improve- 
ment. Appendix, No. VI. Or the youth is to be fitted for pro- 
fessional, philosophical, literary, legislative, or commercial avo- 
cations. A more extended ^education will require languages 
and, at fourteen they will be quickly acquired, by a concentrated 
effort, directed mainly to them for one or two years. More will 
be done in the acquisition of Latin and Greek, at this age than 
at an earlier ; and it is not a new proposition to postpone them to 
that period. I have been assured by judicious teachers of those 
languages, that this is confirmed by experience. Appendix 
No. IV. 

What " College" ought to be, as a yet higher station of intel- 
lectual and moral ascent, must now be obvious. It ought to be 
mainly a school of the higher intellectual powers, the combining 
and reasoning faculties of man. Much of the knowledge upon 
which these faculties act will be brought from the previous 
.schools ; and a sound logic, a practical ethics, a simple theory 
of legislation, a fruit-bearing political economy, will establish 
themselves in the mind, almost without an effort, and with the 
most delightful reality of application. Recognised principles 
will take the place of endless controversy, and human affairs 
will present themselves in harmonious simplicity, instead of in- 
extricable confusion. Composition will then be usefully practis 



124 COLLEGE. 

ed. The Faculties, as they are called, of Law, Medicine, and 
Theology, greatly purified and improved by a sound philosophy, 
will of course have their respective Chairs in a complete and 
well regulated University. Such would be a complete course of 
education, and all attainable by the age of twenty-one. The 
individual will not, as now, require to begin, at that age, to edu- 
cate himself, and then most imperfectly, in the elements of 
knowledge ; he is ready to advance unretarded in an onward 
course of observation and reflective combination, and a practical 
consultation of his own good and the good of his species, which 
will render the education of man, in a more enlarged sense com- 
mensurate with his life's duration. 



125 



CHAPTER VI. 



ON A JUST ESTIMATE OF CIVIL HISTORY, AS A STUDY FOR 
YOUTH. 



History as an advanced study. — Just views of it. — A chronicle of the 
animal propensities.— Characteristics of Antiquity. — Fall of empires 
when natural. — Details hurtful to youth. — Patriot heroism. — Passion 
for war. — Martial glory applauded and rewarded. — Internal polity of 
antiquity. — Asia and Egypt. — Monotony of propensities. — Tyrannies, 
caprices, and childishness.— "Free" states of antiquity, Greece and 
Rome. — No recognised principle of liberty. — Ingratitude to public 
benefactors. — Benevolence and justice foundations of free institutions. 
— Selfish ambition of public men in Athens and Rome. — Tribes that 
overthrew the Roman empire. — How history should be written.— 
How taught. — Abridgment. — Dark ages. — Since Reformation. — 
Should be a late study. 



In alluding to civil history as an object of notice in the advan- 
ced school, of the last chapter, I proposed to resume the subject 
considered as the study of maturer years. There are some 
views of this branch of knowledge which require a full exposi- 
tion, and are important in a treatise upon the principles of edu- 
cation. 

In nothing is more time lost than in the details of history, 
as taught to the young ; it is worse than lost ; the pursuit is ren- 
dered positively injurious to social improvement. The annals 
of man — for by far the greater portion of the recorded duration 
of his race, with exceptions calculated only to give more force 
to the rule, — are susceptible of a very summary description, and 

that is, A CHRONICLE OF THE ANIMAL PROPENSITIES. Gleams of 

morality have occasionally shone out, like meteors in the vast 
obscuration ; and, in very recent modern times, the light of the 
higher sentiments has begun to burn more steadily ; but it yet 
serves to do little more than render visible the chaos of selfish- 
ness which still ingulfs mankind. The ancient world was en- 
slaved by the propensities, paramount almost without mitigation. 
If the Greeks and Romans were justly so characterized, it can- 
not be said that the Egyptians and the different empires and king- 
doms-of Asia were any better: pride, rapacity, and cruelty inter- 
XX* 



126 FALL OF EMPIRES — DETAILS HURTFUL. 

nally degraded and oppressed these tribes of men ; while, exter- 
nally, their relations to each other, exhibit centuries of vain- 
glory, jealousy, injustice, fraud, violence, cruelty, slaughter, and 
robbery — all manifestations of animalism in its most unrestrained 
form of criminal energy. War waged with atrocity, ended, if 
not in the extermination, in the bondage of the defeated : the 
successive empires, as they are called, only indicate to us which 
tribe were for the time the strongest animals, from the epoch 
when the Egyptian "king of kings" subjected nameless hordes of 
barbarians in regions without bounds, through ages of Assyrian 
domination over all Asia, Babylonian ascendency over prostrate 
Assyria, Persian vengeance on gorged and gilded Babylon, Ma- 
cedonian on Persia, — till, later still, the Greeks found a stronger 
animal power yet in the talons of the Roman eagle, and the ac- 
cumulated flood of human selfishness and cruelty, which had 
swelled as it swept along from Sesostris to Trajan, found an 
ocean in the breadth and depth of Roman self-aggrandizement. 
But, by the Creator's fiat. Justice and Mercy alone " endure for 
ever." Human power, founded on any lower feelings, is an au- 
dacious defiance of His laws, of which even the temporal punish- 
ment, however postponed, is sure. The instrument maybe as 
worthless as the criminal. Babylonish brutality was as pro- 
found as Assyrian, Persian as Egyptian: enlightened morality 
rejects the office of weighing out a little more pride to the Nine- 
vite s a little more cunning to the Egyptian, a little more sensu- 
ality to the Babylonian, a little less falsehood to the Persian, — 
they were all below the level where discrimination avails ; none 
of them could complain of the same injustice and violence which 
each, when strong enough, had inflicted : propensities tugged 
with propensities, and the families of antiquity tore each other to 
pieces. 

What, it may be asked, is gained, or rather how much time 
and morality are positively lost, in the education of youth, by 
minute details of such atrocities? It is quite sufficient that the 
student shall know that such things were, without reading 
volumes of circumstantial proofs of the fact. If he is to dwell 
upon military glory, would it not be better to present him 
with the devoted acts of the patriot, than the ferocities of the ag- 
gressive warrior ? The heroes whom Homer has arrayed with 
all the splendours of his poetry, he has only exhibited as magnifi- 
cent animals ; and Richard of England borrowed his distinction 
from the king of beasts. The act ofthe noble Swiss who opened 
a path for his countrymen into the phalanx of the Austrian men- 
at-arms, by grasping in his embrace a number of their levelled 
lances, and fixing their points fast in his own bosom, is far more 
worthy to be remembered by the young student of history, than a 
hundred daring deeds of the aggressive robbers admired as the 



TYRANT CAPRICES — "FREE STATES." 127 

heroes of history. As hitherto written and taught, history has 
done much to occasion that prominencejof the passionTor arms 
in human affairs, that delight in war, with its two-fold prize of 
glory and plunder, which has descended even to our own times ; 
the animal propensities still impelling nineteen-twentieths of 
social concerns : hence war is popular, and martial feats yet re- 
ceive the loudest acclaim, and lead to the highest honours and 
the richest rewards. 

If the animal feelings uncontrolled impelled the tribes of anti- 
quity in their'external relations, it is not to be expected that we 
shall have to go higher for the springs of their internal polity, 
which is nevertheless considered the basis of political wisdom 
for the study of the young. Asia and Egypt are easily disposed 
of; — brute despotism, based on pride and all the inferior feelings 
in the rulers, and suffered by perverted veneration and abject 
fear in the governed. This is the monotony of the propensities : 
despots and slaves present no varieties ; their dull station offers 
but one land-mark in the stream of human progress ; for en- 
slaved man does not advance. The character and actions of the 
tyrants were made up of the sensuality of the swine-sty, of whims 
and caprices of which children would now be ashamed, yet for 
which millions of human beings were sacrificed, and of cruelties 
in endless variety, to support a reign of terror, or gratify a wan- 
ton delight in destruction and blood. Bricks in double tale were 
exacted, and straw was withheld. Pyramids were raised, the 
enduring monuments of gigantic childishness and oppression ; — 
lives were sacrificed to show the tyrant's expertness in the use 
of the cimeter : — the decree went forth that at the sound of the 
sackbut and psaltery, millions should change their religious faith : 
and the weeping Hebrew was commanded by his revelling op- 
pressors to snatch his harp from the willow, and strike it to the 
lofty song of Sion. 

The young politician is directed to look to the "free states 
of antiquity," as the Greeks and Romans are called, for 
models for his principles, and their history is pressed upon his 
attention. But there is no genuine liberty without a moral foun- 
dation. During the periods that these states were not under the 
iron sceptre of a single despot, their freedom was no better than 
an animal struggle. On the one side, in the contest, were the 
rulers unceasingly grasping at vulgar power by vulgar means ; 
while on the other were the people, profoundly ignorant of their 
moral claims to freedom, and only uniting to snap the chain, as 
the wild beast endeavours to do, because it galls him. Popular 
tyranny, in its turn, was exercised without either justice or 
mercy, and the whole weight of its ingratitude and oppression 
was sure to fall upon the heads of the public benefactors espe- 
cially. Solon, Miltiades, Aristides, Themistocles,. Socrates, 



128 FOUNDATION OF FREE INSTITUTIONS. 

Cimon, and Phocion, were some of the well known victims. We 
do not find in the ancient states any thing resembling what we 
should call established principles of national libeity ; the people 
scorned to be slaves, but longed to be tyrants ; the struggle was 
for power, not for liberty; and power is the object of an inferior 
sentiment. Benevolence and Justice are the only lasting foun- 
dations of free institutions ; these desire equal rights, privileges 3 
and enjoyments, for the whole race ; they are inconsistent with 
a tendency in the governors to exclude, oppress, or engross, and 
in the governed to overleap the self-imposed bounds of the social 
relations ; in a word they render restraint unnecessary. There 
is no durability in any government where the rulers do more than 
guard the community from excesses which may arise from the 
propensities, or where the governed combine to exercise any 
thing else than mutual goodwill, fairness, and respect for each 
other's rights. These were limits unknown in communities im- 
pelled by the propensities, like Greece and Rome. A counter 
ambition, a love of power moved the great majority of even their 
patriots: their efforts were plots for their turn of ascendency. 
The objects of Pisistratus in Athens, and the Gracchi in Rome, 
were not more founded on sound principles and disinterested 
feelings, than those of Catiline or Cesar. In a long contest for 
animal ascendency, physical strength prevailed, and the despot- 
ism of the Cesars terminated the anarchies and the tyrannies of 
the "free" state of Rome. 

As teachers of politics the Greeks are no better than as 
teachers of morals. There was no virtue, in the proper moral 
sense, in the Athenian people at large. Any thing resembling 
political worth in their leading men was neither appreciated nor 
endured. The people were merciless and unjust, and of course 
restless, unsatisfied, and unhappy : this is a fact recorded by their 
own historians, and inferred by those of modern times : it is ever 
the retribution of the propensities ; — " there is no rest for the 
wicked." The repose, the contentment, the dignity, of the 
higher sentiments and intellect supreme, w r ere unknown to them ; 
the animal prevailed and rendered them a selfish, conceited, 
jealous, fickle, and turbulent people. Tired of kings they esta- 
blished archoris, and Draco exemplified the domination of the 
propensities in himself, at least, by his absurdly ferocious laws. 
Solon came alter him and gave the Athenians, not the best laws, 
for which he saw them utterly unfitted, but. the best they were 
capable of receiving : in other words ; he legislated for their in- 
ferior impulses, and legislated in vain ; his four orders of citizens 
was a political absurdity, which threw the whole power into the 
hands of the most numerous, the lowest, and the most ignorant. 
Anacharsis expressed his opinion to Solon that the wise delibe- 
rated, but the fools decided. 



ATHENS— ROME — TRIBUNES. 129 

In vain was the Areopagus re-established and a senate created 
in which measures originated ; final determination lying with the 
people, passion, in other words, propensities, the engine which 
the demagogue wields, carried every thing : continual factions 
agitated the people, and corruption pervaded all the offices and 
departments of the state ; the selfish schemes or jobs of individu- 
als, often as foolish as they were profligate, took the place of 
rational and honest legislation, and the best citizens were sacri- 
ficed who ventured to oppose them. Such was the ladder by 
which Pisistratus climbed to sovereign power. Under his sons 
the people might have been more peaceful, but Harmodias and 
Aristogiton resolved to restore what they deemed the liberty, 
but truly the popular turbulence, of Athens. They murdered 
Hipparchus for merely succeeding to his father ; and Hippias, 
justly banished for his tyranny, gratified his revenge by bringing 
upon his country the propensities of a million of Persians. The 
war of Pericles was a contest of pride, cruelty, treachery, and 
bad faith, and ended, as all warlike enterprises no better based 
must end, in defeat, disgrace, and humiliation. Both Athens 
and Sparta were reduced to abject weakness at Mantinea, where 
the meteor-star of Epaminondas was quenched in victory, and 
the glory of Thebes blazed and vanished. The spirit of patriot- 
ism, selfish as it was, was gone among the Greeks; the refine- 
ments of luxury were the national pursuit in Attica; poets, come- 
dians, musicians, painters, and sculptors, were all in all, and 
Greece fell an easy prey to Macedon, and ultimately to Rome. 

In Roman history there is as little valuable political wisdom 
to be learned as in Grecian. In the Commonwealth, some crimi- 
nal outrage brought each successive bad government to a close. 
Such finished the kings and established the Consulate. Under 
it, the patricians, selfish, exclusive, and oppressive, reduced the 
other classes to great distress. The Tribunes arose, and the 
people extorted a much greater share of power than would have 
satisfied them, had the exclusive class made more timely con- 
cessions, — a lesson often given but never taken in human affairs. 
The people tasted power, and the government became purely 
democratic. Justice and mercy in such struggles are out of the 
question ; the dominant propensities impelled the whole course of 
events; the brutal injustice of one of the Decemvirs brought the 
short experiment of that power to a close, and restored the Con- 
sulate. The tumultuary sedition of the Gracchi, of course fatal 
to themselves, was followed by a series of civil disorders, which 
terminated only with the Republic. Corruption already existed 
to a great extent, for Jogurtha twice determined an exculpatory 
vote of the Senate in his own favour, by bribery. It was not to 
be wondered at that Sylla and Marius paid no respect to the 
rights of those who had no respect for themselves; they were 



*30 SELFISH AMBITION OF PUBLIC MEN. 

rivals for the selfish object of uncontrolled power, and each, in 
his turn, massacred the Romans without mercy. The high 
game they played inflamed the profligate ambition of others ; and 
Cethegus, Verres, and Pompey, were the apt pupils of Sylla in 
proscription and bloodshed. Lepidus, Catiline, and Crassus, 
'rushed on the stage, all bent upon being Syllas, and equally re- 
gardless with him of the means ; but Cesar's schemes were more 
deeply and ably selfish than those of any of the rest ; his trium- 
virate with Pompey and Crassus was a master-stroke of prepara- 
tive policy : the death of Crassus dissolved the interested con- 
nexion, for Cesar and Pompey were, too evidently to each other, 
pursuing the same selfish object, to preserve any longer the sem- 
blance even of union. The second triumvirate of Anthony, Oc- 
tavius, and Lepidus, after Cesar's death, was perhaps the most 
cold-blooded, ruthless tyranny which ever disgraced human na- 
ture ; in the frightful proscription which followed, in which 300 
senators and 3000 knights were put to death, the three heartless 
monsters by concert agreed to sacrifice each some of his best 
friends to the vengeance of his associates. Anthony consented 
to the murder of his uncle Lucius, Lepidus gave up his brother 
Paulus, and Octavius paid the debt with the lives of Toronius, 
his guardian, and Cicero his friend. The triumvirate, like other 
copartneries founded on selfishness, broke up whenever circum- 
stances gave the basest of the associates the chance of reigning 
alone. Although Octavius owed Phillipi to Anthony, he effect- 
ed his ruin at Actium. Cleopatra's share of the moral senti- 
ments shone forth in her. desertion of her lover with her gallies 
in the heat of the action, and her affectionate offer to abandon 
him to the mercy of the conqueror. This baseness was too much 
even for Octavius ; or, more probably, he saw that he did not re- 
quire its aid, as both lovers were in his power, and he intended 
to have delighted the populace of Rome by an exhibition of them, 
chained to his triumphal chariot. They preferred self-destruc- 
tion. Lepidus disappeared in his own insignificance, and Octa- 
vius returned to Rome sole master of the Roman empire. 

_ It is unnecessary to detain the reader with the Roman Em- 
pire : the character of the people became more and more cor- 
rupted and debased. The proclivity, which Salust dates from 
the fate of Carthage,* proceeded in the accelerating ratio of a 
falling body. Every one knows the merits of the different em- 
perors, and is well aware that, according as the prince was a 
man or a brute, the Roman people revived or suffered: unfortu- 
nately the latter character belonged to a great majority of the 
emperors. 

* " Ante Carthaginem deletam — metus hqstilis in bonis artibus cU 
vitatem retinebat. Sed ubi ilia formido mentibus decessit, lascivia 
&tque superbia invasere." 



HISTORY HOW TO BE WRITTEN. 131 

Little is to be gained by studying the history of the barbarism 
which overthrew and overspread the Roman empire, in the va- 
rieties of Huns, Visigoths, Ostrogoths, Lombards, Franks, &c. 
It would be difficult to find one institution in the dark ages 
founded in mercy, or any feeling higher than a rude and despo- 
tic, justice, or artificial honour, the offspring of chivalry. Chris- 
tianity, with its humanizing powers, w«s for many centuries inter- 
cepted, and the most debasing system of fraud substituted in its 
place, which ever cheated mankind. A dense and noxious fog 
was interposed between the nations of Europe, and the vivifying 
rays of Christian morality. 

Before history can be properly taught, it must be properly 
written. It must be written under the direction of an enlighten- 
ed philosophy of mind and human nature, and the sound ethics 
of the supremacy of the moral sentiments and intellect. It 
ought to be viewed as a record of the manifestations of the fa- 
culties of man, and — the distinction of the animal from the moral 
faculties, the truth that creation is arranged on the principle of 
favouring virtue, being kept in view — its events should be class- 
ed according to their relation to the higher or lower feelings of 
humanity ; exalting the former as worthy ofapprobation and imi- 
tation ; and reprobating the latter according to their place in the 
scale of vice or crime, to which, in abuse, they essentially belong. 
The historian thus guided would not worship the false splendour of 
the Greeks and Romans, — -a worship too unequivocally indicative 
of a sympathy in ourselves with the lower feelings, out of which 
that false splendour arose ; but tracing through all their ramifica- 
tion and tortuosities, to their ultimate inevitable retribution, acts 
fundamentally immoral or criminal, would sternly refuse to them 
the slightest shelter from universal execration, in the most daz- 
zling feats of the heroism, the most munificent dispensation of 
plunder, the finest taste, or most gorgeous magnificence. The 
same guiding principles would impart to history a philosophical 
character, which would give it the highest practical value, and 
instead of an unedifying monotony of vice and crime, would ren- 
der it a continued illustration of principle, and an instructive 
guide to national practice. 

However history may yet be written, it surely need not be 
taught to the young through the medium of the animal propen- 
sities. Ancient history would require great and judicious 
abridgment, and a new code of instruction, for its conveyance. 
A knowledge of the past existence of the various tribes of men, 
with the chronology of their rise and fall as nations, is of 
course indispensable. A very summary sketch of their crimes, 
avoiding their interminable details, would be sufficient to illus- 
trate the dominion of the lower feelings which brouglit on their 
fall. To minds exalted by moral training, details of barbarism 



132 ABRIDGMENT. 

and blood will be intolerably tedious and disgusting ; false glare 
being at an end, volumes filled with re-enactments of the same 
animal manifestations will no longer be endured. After exhaust- 
ing Asiatic and Egyptian selfishnesses, sensualities, cruelties, bru- 
talities and absurdities, a repetition of the very same abominations 
mutato nomine, in Grecian animals, and yet again, when done 
with these, in Roman, would be a most irksome task, and a mi- 
serable waste of time. In a judicious abridgment nothing real- 
ly valuable, even as matter of warning, need be lost ; nothing 
which marks the development of the faculties, and the progress 
of human improvement, with the motives of action and the 
events in their connexion as effects from causes; while all the 
varieties of injustice, individual and national, should receive their 
right names, and fraud, treachery, aggression, robbery and mur- 
der, which we justly reprobate when perpetrated in private life, 
be given over to tenfold execration when committed on a large 
scale ; when millions are slaughtered by an Alexander, a Cesar, 
or a Napoleon, when kingdoms are plundered and nations en- 
slaved. The race would be retrograding instead of advancing, 
if there were not much to avoid in the actings of men who lived 
when the world w T as greatly younger and less experienced than 
it is now: for " the wisdom of our ancestors" — an entity gene- 
rally of doubtful reality at any time — becomes a perfect solecism 
when it draws back to the eras of positive barbarism. In the 
progress of civilization, useful details will be amplified. The 
dark ages — with the exception of those singular manifestations 
of excited propensities and insane veneration, the Crusades, 
which have done good as warning beacons — scarcely possess 
any interest founded in utility. But, from the period of the re- 
vival of learning and science, the working of the faculties affords a 
great and progressing increase of lessons, and from the Reforma- 
tion downwards, the history of England is replete with instruction. 
Even of that history since the Reformation an enlightened mo- 
rality would reform the inculcation, and allot more discriminately, 
than is almost ever done, their proper places, according to a sound 
philosophy, to the characters, acts, customs, and institutions of 
our predecessors. Thus would the character of history be ele- 
vated, and its usefulness increased. When it had less of war, 
it would have more of society's natural state peace, and would 
become less a chronicle exclusively of kings and governments, 
and more a true picture of the successive generations of the hu- 
man race ; a valuable record of experience, holding the relation 
to the philosophy of man of a gradual induction of facts, capable 
of being systematized into a code of practical principles, with a 
beneficial application te every department of human affairs. It 
remains only, on this important head, to observe, that history, 
taught as now recommended, should be one of the latest subjects 



SHOULD BE A LATE STUDY. 133 

of study ; when imparted as a mere chronicle or succession of 
facts it matters little whether it tasks the young or the advanc- 
ed ; but addressed to the reflecting powers of the student, it ought 
to be delayed till these are developed ; addressed as it is to the 
memory alone it is forgotten, and even when remembered, is 
scarcely, by the educated themselves, applied to any practical 
use whatever. 



13 



134 



CHAPTER VII. 



ON POPULAR EDUCATION AS THE DUTY OF THE NATION — PLAK 
PROPOSED. 



Burdens from popular ignorance— Education ought to be free— Working 
class cannot obtain it— Always has been at public expense — School 
fees— Voluntary senools precarious— Working class indifferent— 
Gratis experiment— Claims of working class— They pay bulk of 
taxes— Nation must educate them— Commissioners— Ministers — 
Code — The What of education — Practical arrangements — Proposed 
building and airing ground— School and scientific apparatus— Nor- 
mal schools for training teachers — First and second grants— Control 
and superintendence — No lack of teachers — Legitimate compulsion 
on parents— Something immediately to be done— Extract from the 
Edinburgh Review. 



Popular ignorance is an enormous national evil. The ig- 
norance, almost total, of seven-eighths of the British people, to 
say nothing of the deep reproach with which it covers us, is full 
of danger to our social system, and even affects deeply our daily 
well-being. A great proportion of our burdens must, be placed 
to its account ; it peoples our prisons and our hospitals, desolates 
our land with pauperism, and taxes us for the costly machinery 
of police establishments and criminal judicature ; while it largely 
deducts from the happiness of every feeling man, to witness and 
live surrounded by the nameless and numberless sufferings which 
it entails upon an immense portion of our countrymen. From 
these sufferings they have a claim on that system called the Na- 
tion, for deliverance. The associating principle of a nation is 
protection to all from those evils which are loo strong for indi- 
vidual exertion. It bestirs itself when pestilence stalks abroad, 
and the unseen arrow wounds by noonday ; this is urgent, and 
fear performs its office. It rises with all the excitation of the 
belligerant faculties to make war, and pours forth its treasures 
like a torrent.* Pride and rage are uncalculating paymasters. 

* The combinations which led to the victory of Waterloo, in other 
words, the expenses to Britain of the memorable "Hundred days," 
was forty millions of pounds Sterling ! 



EDUCATION OUGHT TO BE FREE. 135 

But the war against ignorance is made to wait ; it rouses not 
pride, nor flatters vanity ; the spread of that pestilence ex- 
cites no panic. Benevolenee and justice, the moving forces to 
that contest, are unimpassioned, tranquil, and withal slow; and 
although we never admit that a treaty with popular ignorance is 
even to be thought of, we are content to live on in so length- 
ened a truce with the enemy, as to amount to the same thing. 
Accustomed most erroneously to consider education as a want 
of which all wish and are willing to pay for the supply, there 
are perhaps none of our old habits of thinking now undergoing 
examination which will receive a more violent concussion than 
this, when the thesis is boldly and unqualifiedly propounded, as it 
now humbly is, that the education of the children of 

THE MANUAL-LABOUR CLASS OUGHT TO BE FREE. — free as the 

air they breathe — milk without money and without price. If 
this novel proposition be deliberately weighed, it will be found 
that to deny it is to exclude popular education altogether from 
being a part or portion of social existence. The argument for 
throwing open liberally the doors of our schools to the children 
of the manual-labour class is twofold, 1st, That class cannot 
command any thing deserving the name of education for their 
children ; and 2d, They have an undoubted claim on the Nation 
for that education. 

1st, It is notorious, that the labour — the over-labour — of the 
working man is barely sufficient, and too often insufficient to 
provide food, clothing, lodging, and fuel, for his family. This 
is true when he is industrious, conscientious, and temperate ; but 
the state of his family is greatly worse, if he is addicted to 
drinking, or any other expensive selfish indulgence. We must 
take the fact as it stands, that this last mentioned source of em- 
poverishment actually exists, and operates to a very great ex- 
tent ; so that if the children of the industrious and temperate 
labourer are not educated, there can be no hope at all for those 
of the reckless and the sensual. The object is rendered still 
more unattainable when we reflect what it is that is to be at- 
tained ; what the education is which, from two years of age to 
fourteen, is requisite to elevate the people, physically, morally 
and intellectually, from their present three-fold degradation. 
An humble attempt has been made to describe it in the 4th and 
5th Chapters of this treatise; and I would ask any competent 
person, who has read these chapters, and who agrees with me in 
thinking that the education there described is the education want- 
ed for the people, to judge whether by any efforts of their own, 
individual or combined, the manual-labour class can command 
that education for their children, over and above the mainte- 
nance of themselves and their families ? They are quite as ade- 
quate, of themselves, to the arrangements and combinations 



136 HAS ALWAYS BEEN AT PUBLIC EXPENSE. 

of a war. The very material of efficient education is far be- 
yond their reach, — the ground, the buildings, the apparatus, the 
implements ; and as much so is the previous most necessary edu- 
cation of teachers, in number themselves an army.* An aprio- 
i statement of this array of difficulties might suffice, but the 
fact is, that the idea of the manual-labour class educating their 
children, beyond a slight aid to that object, has never been, be- 
cause it cannot be entertained, The boasted parochial schools 
of Scotland are built and endowed by the public ; the teacher's 
house, garden, and salary, are found him by the same public ; 
while the school fees payable by the people for their children 
are inadequate even to keep up the establishment, and are look- 
ed to as a mere aid to the teacher's, after all, too scanty means. 
In the towns, all the experiments of Lancasterian and Infant 
schools are made mainly at the public expense ; they were else 
quite beyond the reach of the class for whose benefit they are 
established. It matters not that they are erected and endowed 
by partial voluntary contributions, and not by general assess- 
ment ; my present purpose is to show that they are not, because 
they could not be, procured by the working classes themselves. 
But such establishments are of the most limited extent, and far 
short of a title to be called public institutions ; and moreover, 
even in them the weekly pittance demanded from the parents 
for their children's attendance, in aid of the subscribed funds, is 
partially and irregularly paid, and operates to multitudes, and 
those most needing education, as a positive exclusion. We are 
not called upon to account for this, — although it is easily ac-^ 
counted for in pinching want and profligate habits, which often 
leave not the twopence required, or devote it to the gin-shop, — 
it is enough that it is known and felt to be true. The weekly 
twopence has thinned the ranks of the Edinburgh model Infant 
school, till its directors look upon it more as a sort of staff to 
preserve the invaluable system than a full establishment. The 
institution was calculated for 250 or 300 infants ; but for a year, 
and a half, in spite of the undiminished zeal and activity of an 
excellent teacher, in spite of the exertions of the directors, and 
not less of the directresses,, to increase the numbers, and in spite of 
many expedients, to tempt and almost coax the people to enter 
their children, 100 have been the full average attendance !f 
But there is another circumstance which must tell with tenfold 
force in the present argument, namely, that hundreds are of a 
class above the grade for whom the institution was chiefly in- 
tended ; the appearance and clothing of the children, their finery 

* The number of registered teachers, of both sexes, under the Na- 
tional system of Prussia, is 27,000 and upwards. 
, t The numbers alone have fallen off? the system continues vigorous. 



VOLUNTARY SCHOOLS PRECARIOUS. 137 

even on exhibition days, and the general character and appear- 
ance of the parents themselves, all bespeak the more respecta- 
ble class of work people ; while to those who need it most the 
school is shut, by the charge of twopence a-week for one child, 
and a penny for every other child of the same family. 

But again, the parish schools of Scotland have endured for 
two centuries just because they do not depend on voluntary sup- 
port. For the permanence of the establishments now supported 
by voluntary contribution, their best friends a v e full of fears. It 
is well known that, over the whole country, they are occasionally 
dropping, like lights extinguished in the deep obscure, " like 
stars from the firmament cast."* A solitary Lancasterian school 
in Edinburgh of about 600 pupils is supported, but no more; 
while an almost periodical statement is reported by its directors 
that it is running in debt, and must in the long run shut its doors 
unless more liberally treated. The infant school, too, has been 
a model to only one additional establishment ; and has not only 
made no progress in clearing an original large debt, but is just 
able to subsist from year to year ; how much longer we dare not 
say. Mr. Wood's name is itself sufficient to maintain a numer- 
ous and vigorous school, though that establishment also receives 
and requires voluntary public aid. In short, the whole system 
of voluntarily supported education is precarious, and limited far 
short of the exigencies of the working classes. Besides, it is 
yet another load unfairly laid upon benevolence by selfishness, 
which is content to reap the benefit of what others pay for. In 
Edinburgh, we are, and have been for some time, at what is 
called a " stand still," and it is presumed that we are a pretty 
fair type of other places. A. hundred other charities burden 
and exhaust the benevolent, who, as was formerly observed, are 
to the non-contributing public of these places as one to one hun- 
dred ! Of the rest, multitudes never give on any account what- 
ever; "it is not in their way;" some do make a rare exception 
of a particularly popular and showy occasion ; but steady noise-. 

* In No. 117 of the 'Edinburgh Review, page 8, is the following 
passage : — " In Henly-on-Thames, there has been a tolerable British 
school. The Committee on the spot, however, were seized with the 
notion that they should like to have an Infant School. The British 
School was accordingly allowed to drop, but no infant school succeed- 
ed. So precarious is the tenure of unendowed schools. We may men- 
tion also, in proof of their liability to accident, a state of things by no 
means uncommon in the midland counties, in which sons of respectable 
farmers have grown up to men's estate without even the elements of 
education. That they were accustomed to receive in Dames' schools ; 
but during the time when prices were high, and the farmers prosperous, 
they sent their children to boarding schools and academies^ Bad times 
returned, and the children were recalled ; but the Dames' school had 
disappeared," 

12* 



138 . WORKING CLASS INDIFFERENT. 

less, stated, philanthropic expenditure is rare, nor is even that 
unvarying. This is well known to the anxious directors of some 
charities which have ceased to be novel ; other charities, bad 
times, general suffering, year after year, thin their subscription 
lists ; the institutions struggle on by various expedients, for some 
time longer, by contracting their usefulness, and heavily taxing 
their conductors over and above their labour ; at last they die, 
and a subscription to bury them and wind up their affairs is at- 
tempted, and fails ! But pay for it who may, the education of 
the working classes never has been and never will, for it cannot, 
be paid by themselves. Besides inability, there is another obsta- 
cle to any thing like effort by that class to obtain education for 
their children, and that is their utter indifference to it, arising 
from ignorance of its advantages. The very ignorance which 
we deplore is a mountainous barrier in the way of its own remov- 
al. The road must be levelled and smoothed, and almost strow- 
ed with flowers, to tempt the prevailing apathy to move in it, 
It is proverbial, but erroneous, that a thing must be paid for be- 
fore it is valued, and many will tell us that the working class 
will not care to send their children to our gratis schools. Now 
that has not yet been tried ; but it has, on trial, been found to 
be most certainly true that the maxim reversed holds good, 
namely, that a thing must be valued before it is paid for ; and 
hence the empty halls of the pence-exacting schools. It seems 
an experiment well worth the while of the Government, who 
must have ultimately to deal with the great question, to guaran- 
tee, for a year or two, the loss to two or three infant schools, 
that shall arrange to open their doors gratis. From many indi- 
cations, and from inquiries made by them among the poorer class- 
es, Mr. Dan and Mr. Milne, the teachers of the Edinburgh Lan- 
casteriaii and model Infant schools, have informed the author 
that they entertain no doubt that their schools would be quite 
full in a few days on that footing.* This might be expected 
by attention to the most obvious human motives. The parent 
must be depraved indeed, or insane, who should prefer being 
annoyed with wretchedly cared for children at home, or seeing 

* Both these teachers declare that their school-fees are irregularly 
paid. Inthe Lancasterian scarcely one-half are paid when due, and a 
great proportion is never recovered. In the infant school it is better, 
though there likewise irregular. Mr. Dun knows when a pupil will 
cease to come back : it is after running some weeks in arrear. He has 
often made the experiment of seeing the parents, whom he generally 
found drunk, and on wiping off the score the pupil was sure to come 
back again. Mr. Dun and Mr. Milne state, that the opinion in favour of 
gratis teaching is from experience general among the teachers them- 
selves. The hoys in the Lancasterian School are about 300, — they 
used to be 500 . If the doors were opened gratis, a larger number 
than 500 would attend with alacrity. There are about 300 girls, 



CLAIMS OF WORKING CLASS. 139 

them playing in the kennels of the streets, in filth and wicked- 
ness, to placing them in the safety, comfort, and to them, luxury 
of an infant school. If they could be tempted only to bring 
them there, the children themselves would most certainly come 
back again; if so, would the parents — could they hinder them ? 
Let us once get hold of the children and we are sure of them ; 
they will make no demand on their parents on Monday morning 
for the non-existing twopence, which has gone for whiskey on 
Saturday night or Sunday ; the poor child is probably sent or 
driven out of doors at any rate ; he will infallibly find his way 
to Infant school; and when once there, he may in most cases be 
counted upon, not only for the whole period of that first school, 
but for transference to the more advanced school, of our fifth 
chapter, also opened to him gratis ; and there also he will make 
out the total term. 

2dly. The manual-labour class have a claim on the nation for 
the means of educating their children. If education can be 
adapted for the people at an expense only which would over- 
whelm any means short of national, it must be provided by the 
nation, fiut this is but another form for the expression that 
it must be provided by the people themselves ; not in a partial 
and inefficient way, but by the equable means of a geneial con- 
tribution passing through the coffers of the state ; the waters 
would but partially irrigate the soil if they were not first carried 
by evaporation high into the atmosphere, and scattered in genial, 
impartial, and spreading showers over the whole face of the 
land. 

From some few direct taxes the manual-labour class is ex- 
empted ; but that class being seven-eighths of the population, 
must bear an immense proportion of the indirect taxation. They 
are, after all, the grand consumers, and nearly every thing they 
consume is in some way or other taxed. What have they in 
return for this 1 They have protection. — Of what 1 they have 
no property to protect, their manual-skill or capacity of labour 
needs no protection ; their persons require little, already protect- 
ed as they are by their poverty ; the protection of the capital 
that pays their labour is a far-fetched personal value for their 
contribution to the public burdens. They are entitled to some 
more palpable and direct return, and what can that be more na- 
tural, more blessed, than education for their children, 

" Dropping like the gentle rain from, heaven 
Upon the place beneath." 

and vivifying and fructifying all it falls upon. It is an error to 
call this gratis education ; the working classes pay for it not only 
in their extensive contribution to the indirect taxation, but iu 



140 THE NATION MUST EDUCATE THEM. 

sustaining- by their labour the entire physical fabric of the com- 
munity. For this they bestow one-half, and often more, of the 
twenty-four hcaxs, and three-fourths of their waking time; and 
that for a remuneration which their numbers render limited, and 
thereby prevent from being adequate. If that remuneration is 
barely sufficient to provide necessaries for their families, can we 
yet reduce it farther by proposing that, over and above their labour 
and taxation, they shall provide education, such as it ought to be, 
for their children 1 No! education denied to seven-eighths of a 
nation, should rouse a nation's energies. That it will be costly 
there is no concealing, but it must be attained at any cost. We 
must go to war with ignorance, and wage it uncompromisingly 
till it is conquered. No half measure will succeed ; the effort 
must be powerful, simultaneous, and worthy of a great people. 
It must have all the " agitation" of a mighty event ; " the peo- 
ple must take the matter into their own hands," this meaning, 
not that the people are expected to make unconnected and 
unsystematic efforts to educate themselves, but that they are 
to urge the great measure on the Government, as one which 
they have at heart, and for which they are willing to pay, pro- 
vided all are made to pay in the fair proportion of an equable 
tax. But to the Government they will leave the mode of ap- 
plying the ways and means so provided ; they will thence best 
secure that uniformity of plan which will enlighten all the land 
alike, and bring it within the circle of one vast but united family; 
in most beneficial contrast to the phasis it now exhibits, general 
ignorance diversified with a little knowledge in the garb of a har- 
lequin, with no two of its patches alike. 

As a commencement to the glorious measure of national edu- 
cation, which is destined to illustrate the legislature that carries 
it through, its merits should be discussed fully and freely in both 
Houses of Parliament, and resolutions voted in its favour. Peti- 
tions will not be wanting, when the subject is "agitated" by the 
legislature and the press, both combining to enlighten the public 
upon it, and render it popular. When the legislature have re- 
cognised, by resolutions, the principles, first, that the educa- 
tion OF THE PEOPLE, FROM TWO YEARS OF AGE TO FOURTEEN, 
OUGHT TO BE FURNISHED AT THE NATIONAL EXPENSE; and, 

secondly, that the national system should be directed by 
the government, the way will be paved for the first act of Par- 
liament which will empower his Majesty to name Commissioners, 
under the superintendence of his Secretary of State for the 
Home Department,* to constitute a Board of Public Education, 

*Pussia and France have each a Minister of Public Instruction, and 
the magnitude of the national object_ would warrant a similar appoint- 
ment in this country. In this proposition I am anticipated by the Edin- 
burgh Review, No. 117, p. 30,— "In England, where almost every thing 



THE WHAT OF EDUCATION. 141 

whose duty, under the responsibility of a minute report to Par- 
liament, it shall be, First, after the most extensive inquiries into 
existing improvements, not merely in this country, where there 
is yet but little to boast of, but in countries which have made, 
and are making, popular educalion a grand national object, such 
as Prussia and France, and guided by sound philosophical prin- 
ciple, to prepare a system of primary education — a Code or direc- 
tory for the teacher's guidance, adapted to all classes of the com- 
munity, and with a special eye to tbe education of the manual- 
labour class, physical, moral, and intellectual. The vital import- 
ance of such a book needs no illustration. On the table of every 
school in the country, it would be the teacher's rule, guide, war- 
rant, and limit, and secure to the pupil education on an enlight- 
ened plan, and that uniform from one end of the empire to tbe 
other. This is of immense moment. There is a vague talk on 
the subject of popular education, even among its zealous friends, 
which appears never to get beyond the machinery, the multipli- 
cation of schools, and the methods of teaching; but few seem to 
think it at all necessary to settle the point, what is to be taught. 
In this, we of this country have the course clear for us to shoot 
ahead immeasurably of both Prussia and France. It would oc- 
cupy too much space to detail here the w t hat of education in 
those countries on their new popular system. Those who have 
read their reports must have been struck with the preponderat- 
ing, the almost exclusive importance allotted to the machinery, 
— to the minister of public instruction, the boards, the normal 
schools, the primary schools, the control and visitation, the uni- 
formity, borrowed from the very war-office and the barracks. 
This is all very right, so far as it goes ; but the education con- 
veyed by all these appliances appears to rise very little above the 
old routine ; and this evidently because it is not suspected in 
Prussia and France that there exists any thing better. We 
miss, in the very front of the system a provision for infant edu- 
cation, for the chief object of all education, to which every thing 
else ought to be subservient, early practical moral training. We 
find no provision made for imparting to the pupil a knowledge of 
himself, and creation as related to him. Languages, geography, 
mathematics, history, music, drawing, penmanship, are all ex- 
cellent branches, but they are too apt to be thought the whole of 
school objects. The desiderated British Code of the substance 

is to do, and a great deal to be undone, we doubt wheher any thing can 
be effected of permanent utility, without a Minister of Public Instruc- 
tion. The duties of the Home Office are already too heavy. The only 
way to secure unity, promptitude, energy, and we may add impartiality, 
in any organized system of national education, is to lodge the undivided 
responsibility in the hands of a public officer, and to limit his duties to 
that great object." 



142 PRACTICAL ARRANGEMENTS. 

of education may be made to exceed any thing yet known ; and, 
borrowec, as it would be, by the very countries from which we 
have copied the machinery, will overpay the boon.* 

Secondly, The next duty of the Board will, of course, be the 
framing of a prac ical scheme of popular education for the coun- 
try at large, — namely, the localizing of schools; the kind of 
school for each locality, best adapted to confer on the place as 
much of the approved educational system as possible; and, as 
the first step after the general plan is fixed, the best mode of train- 
ing the numerous teachers who will be required for so immense 
an undertaking. 

1. The localities pointed out in the familiar parochial divisions 
of the country seem quite unexceptionable. A school on the ap- 
proved plan in every parish would realize the noble scheme to the 
utmost practical or wished-for extent. It is quite unnecessary to 
enter here into minute details ; when principle is established, 
practice comes naturally to the hand. By returns obtained, 
through Lords-Lieutenants, from local authorities, the educa- 
tional wants of the most remote parish may be familiarly known 
to the Board ; the numbers of children ; the distances from a cen- 
tral site for the school ; and all other statistical information 
bearing on the great object. In large towns, the number of 
schools adequate to the population will be regulated by a divi- 
sion into districts. This, besides many other obvious advantages, 
will incite to attendance, especially in the infant school, by vi- 
cinity to the pujpil's home. 

2. The wha/t to be taught, as it has been above called, will 
guide even the architect. The size of his building being regu- 
lated by the number of pulpils in the parish, or town district, the 
structure, for such a plan of education, let us suppose, as is hum- 
bly proposed in this treatise, is obvious, — an oblong building, 
with enclosed ground on both sides of it. On the ground-floor 
there will be a hall for the Infant School, and over it a hall for the 
advanced school, taught either entire, or in two divisions, which 
will require another hall over the second proposed ; but all un- 
der one roof, which every builder, knows is a great saving. A 
most important moral advantage will result from the infant 
and advanced school being in one building, namely a feeling that 
they are parts of the same system ; the child of six ascends to the 
hall above, as a matter as much of course as his growing taller ; 
and that without an interval of a year or two, between the in- 
fant and more advanced school, much complained of by teachers 

*I learn that books are coming out for the Irish Government Schools, 
of a much higher cast than any thing the public have yet seen, and that 
the enlightened Archbishop of Dublin is the author of some of them. I 
have not yet seen any of them, but I hail their appearance, and trust 
fhey will much assist the Code proposed. 



NORMAL SCHOOLS FOR TEACHERS. 143 

as too common, during which much that has been acquired is lost. 
The upper hall or halls will enter from the other side, with- 
out interference with the infant school, and the ahing-ground 
will be larger or deeper, to give room, not only for gymnastic 
exercises, but for simple workshops, gardening, and other manu- 
al employments.* 

In the infant school hall will be all the apparatus of the sys- 
tem, already well known and ready to be furnished. In the ad- 
vanced school will be established, in proper cabinets aiid resposito- 
ries, all the means of illustration, scientific and other, which is 
wanted for the series of lessons there to be taught. There is 
now great simplification, and of course economy, in chymical 
apparatus for the elementary experiments ; while in mechanical 
there is a capability of much abridgment of material, and of 
substitution for the more costly instruments. For example all 
the elementary experiments in pnuematics, formerly performed 
with the large air-pump, which costs above £30, can be per- 
formed with Chalmers' ingenious invention, which can be had 
for £3. In what I have called the Code for the schools, the 
apparatus will all be described and valued ; and the great de- 
mand, with competition, would facilitate ihe supply. 

3. I have said, that whenever the Board have ascertained 
their entire plan, of schools, their number, and localities, and 
the probable number of teachers required, they should proceed 
to mature a mode of fitting the future teachers for their import- 
ant office. It is perhaps one of the most beneficial lesults of 
a great national plan, that the superintended uniformity will se- 
cure qualified teachers, without whom the whole system would 
be a mockery, worse even than the present. The schools for 
teachers are called Normal Schools in Prussia, and are known 
also in Switzerland. Young men are assembled in considerable 
numbers, and instructed and trained in the branches to be taught, 
and the art of teaching, and a provision is made for their travel- 
ling expenses and moderate maintenance, when attending these 
preparative seminaries. The certainty of employment as teach- 
ers secures even a competition for admission, so that even se- 
lection becomes necessary. It is humbly suggested that as 
many of these schools for teachers should be established, as shall 
be deemed by the Commissioners adequate to train the required 
number of teachers, and situated in different convenient locali- 
ties. The Prussian system avoids the larger towns. Well 
qualified instructers of these schools could even now be procured, 
and still more when there shall exist a Code for their guidance. 

* It is assumed that in both the infant and advanced schools, boys 
and girls are educated in the same hall, only sitting apart. They ne- 
ver can be more improvingly or safely together. 



144 mode of training Teacher^ 

Some hundreds might learn under one instructer of the infant 
system and one of the advanced. 

Tne most effectual method of training teachers, is evidently to 
place them in the position of pupils, and, when sufficiently ad- 
vanced, to practise each to conduct the studies and exercises of 
the rest. The infant school teachers should visit well conducted 
infant schools, to observe their actual working ; and very perfect 
infant schools already exist; the only part of the new system 
where there is nothing left to do. The teacher of the more ad- 
vanced school will no doubt be the better fitted for his office, the 
more extended his attainments ; that is, he will not teach the 
chymistry, mechanical philosophy, or astronomy* worse, that he 
has himself advanced much farther in these sciences ; and from 
what I have witnessed in the teachers of improved schools, both 
Lancasterian and Infant, there may be expected, if opportunity 
be enjoyed, energetic and persevering self-improvement. Of 
course the diploma of any of the schools for teachers will be ta- 
ken as credentials of qualification ; and it ought to be rigidly 
enacted by the legislature, that no one not possessed of that evi- 
dence of his having completed the prescribed time in the pre- 
parative school, should be appointed teacher of any of the national 
seminaries. 

As it will require at least two years to educate the teachers, the 
finance of the measure will be regulated accordingly. The first 
grant will not require to do more than to constitute the Commis- 
sioners, of w r hom there might be tw T o Boards, one for Englana\ 
sitting in London, and' another for Scotland in Edinburgh, to 
correspond and co-operate with each other ; they should be ena- 
bled to devote their time exclusively to maturing of the measure,! 
over and above the preparation of the Educational Code. The 
next grant will establish the schools for teachers, and provide 
for them total or partial maintenance during their attendance at 
these seminaries ; while the third, and of course the largest 
grant, w 7 ill be called for when it is necessary to build and endow 
the schools. It has already been said that that g rant must be large : 
it must be told in millions and raised by loan, like tne ways and 
means of a warlike outfit, or the compensation of f he West India 
proprietors. This w 7 ill stagger the public who are unprepared to 
connect the benefit with the cost, and the grants will be sorely 
grudged; but the country, when more enlightened, will come to 
see and acknowledge that the treasure of Britain was never so 
beneficially expended. After the first erection of a school in 
each parish, the annual current expense will be, although abso- 
lutely costly, comparatively light : but it is a burcbn which the 
nation will bear the more willingly, the more enlightened they 
become, the more they are divested of that indifference, if not 



CONTROL ANT) INSPECTION. 145 

indisposition, to popular education, of which ignorance of its real 
aature and value is the caase. 

The Board will exercise the most rigid surveillance over 
the schools for teachers, and subsequent parish schools. The 
teacher ouglu to be liberally paid, quite as liberally as the parish 
minister, while his attainments will secure to him an elevation 
in society, far beyond what the " schoolmaster" has yet enjoyed. 
But to keep up zeal, and prevent the sedative effect of endow- 
ment, all the national schoolteachers should be appointed trien- 
Rially ; when reappomiment will depend upon previous condret. 
The Board ought to have the sole appointment of the teachers, 
and the power of dismissal for sufficient reason. Returns at 
stated periods should be made to the Board, by the teachers, of 
the condition and progress of their schools ; and these should be 
countersigned by the Justices of Peace and Clergy in the parish, 
who should have power, and be ^joined to visit, the school at 
all times, and examine it once or twice a year. Occasional in- 
spections by members of the Boarci, or by qualified pe .ons ap^ 
pointed by them, going in circuit, so hat the whole sekools may 
be inspected in the course of a certain number of years, and their 
state published, would furnish a motive to teachers, justices, and 
ministers, alike to do their duty. 

It is not likely that there will be any lack of applicants for 
admission into the schools for teachers, and these previously 
possessed — for this should be conditioned — of all the instrumen- 
tary attainments of ordinary education* such as reading, writing, 
arithmetic, geography, mathematics. The evil of the want of 
channels of usefulness and subsistence for well educated young 
men, is severely felt all over the country. Not only will a more 
respectable reward for their qualificatwns offer a:i inducement, 
which is at present unheard of, to follow the liberal profession of 
instructers, but the avocation itself will, in its excitement to the 
faculties, so far exceed all the power which belongs to the pre- 
sent dull system, as to engage a much higher order of minds than 
those that are forced into employment for mere breod. This 
has been most forcibly exemplified in the Wilderspin infant 
schools.* 

It has been already observed that there will be no want of pu- 
pils to fill the ranks of such schools as the national schools ought 
to be. Tne parents, it has been said, will scarcely hinder the 
resort of their children to these places of safety and improvement, 
unless worked upon by some counteracting influence. Besides 
the disrepute, which will become greater as the system extends, 
of withholding education from their children, from mere indo- 

* See Appendix, No. III. 
13 



146 NO LACK OF TEACHERS AND PUPILS. 

lence or perversity, the community, who pay for the advantaged 
which are thus rejected, will come to apply a more intelligible 
stimulus to these selfish recusants, in form of refusal of work or 
domestic service to themselves, and the assurance that they will 
be refused to their children, not only as an expression of re- 
proach, but because the educated young workmen will certainly 
be more skilful and more trust-worthy. Besides this, municipal 
powers, privileges, and advantages^ should all be made to depend 
upon the evidence produced by the claimant that he attended 
bona fide one of the schools, for the appointed period ; and if, at 
the time of his application, he has children of the stated age, that 
they are actually bona fide attending one of the school^. I 
allude to the elective franchise, votes for local offices, and elligi- 
bility to fill them, parish relief, certificates of character, promo- 
tion in, and even admission into, the army and navy, &c. This 
seems the utmost limit of compulsion, if it ought to be so called, 
which seems either practicable or desirable. Even so much will 
be required in comparatively few instances, and these only in the 
first working of the system. The privilege, the high privilege, of 
education will soon recommend itself, and be eagerly courted 
both by parents and children.* 

Some observations on the obstacles which at present stand in 
the way of this great yet simple scheme are reserved for the con- 
cluding chapter. The author has only to add here that it would 
ill become so humble an individual as himself to expect the 
speedy realization of his views, when the first men of the age 
depsond when they allude to the subject. It is thought that their 
despair regards finance, and perhaps prejudice, more than essen- 
tial impracticability. If the country will furnish the ways and 
means, and the interested or prejudiced will abstain from oppos- 
ing or thwarting, the measure, though vast, is beautifully sim- 
ple, and might be brought into operation in a very few years. It 
is of great importance to familiarize the public, through the 
medium of the press, with enlarged educational views; improve- 
ment of a temporary kind may even be adopted by the existing 
schools, although this is not to be generally reckoned upon ; but 
the public at large will advance in their habits of thinking on the 
subject , and become more disposed to make the great national 
effort which is so urgently required. It is humbly suggested 
that resolutions by the Legislature, and the measure of appoint- 
ing a Board of Education to prepare. that important work which 
I have called the Code, and to mature a national plan, should 
not be delayed even for another session of Parliament. Be- 
sides the practical operation of a regulating body of instruc- 

* In Pmisia attendance at the national schools is rigidly enforced. 



EDINBURGH REVIEW— PRUSSIAN TEACHERS. 147 

tions,* the existence of an organized power steadily preparing and 
forwarding the great cause in the country, towards a well-defined 
«nd, would produce a powerful moral influence, and keep all eyes 
fixed upon the coming event, as an epoch in the annals of "the 
country and the histoiy of the race. I cannot better conclude 
this chapter, than with an extract from the able article in the 
Edinburgh Review No. 117, already more than once alluded to.f 
At page 27, the writer says, — 

" Of all the preliminary steps, then, to the adjustment of this 
great question, by far the most important is the appointment of 
some means for training schoolmasters, not to any set of mechani- 
cal evolutions merely, but to a knowledge of the principles and 
practice of their profession, and to the able and enlightened 
discharge of its duties. The want of some such provision is the 
great vice of our Scottish system. Faults have thus crept into the 
practice of our parish schools, which nothing but the removal of 
the cause will eradicate. Our readers are aware what consequence 
the Prussian lawgivers attached to this- object; wisely consi- 
dering that the best plans of teaching are a dead letter, without 
-good and able teachers ; and that to expect good teachers without 
good training, is to look for a crop without plowing and sowing. 
In all their regulations on the subject of the Schullehrer semina- 
rien, there is an anxious consideration of whatever can minister 
to the moral and intellectual improvement, and even to the per- 
sonal comfort and happiness, of the young teachers, which re- 
minds us more of the tenderness of parental care and admonition, 
than of the stern and authoritative precepts of law. Every De- 
partment is enjoined to have one of these seminaries ; the pupils 
to be admitted between sixteen and eighteen, to the number of 
fromjsixty to seventy in each ; to be situated in towns of mode- 
rate size, that, on the one hand, they may be preserved from the 
corruption of very large ones, and, on the other, have access to 
schools which they can see and may improve in. The course of 
instruction delivered in these institutions presupposes that of the 
primary schools. Pupils are admitted, however, with whom it 
is advisable to go back on the primary instruction; and the first 
of the three years, which form the complement of attendance 
for the whole course, is generally spent in revising and giving 
readier and fuller possession of previous acquirements. If that 
point, however, is already reached, it shortens the attendance by 

* I may mention another advantage of our Code ; it will be the war- 
rant for the pupil's manuals, which may be little more than extracts 
from it; and thus a general complaint by parents will be obviated, viz. 
the great expense of the interminable variety and bulk of school-book?, 
out of which, after all, but a very small portion is ever read. 

1 1 beg to refer to Article 13th of tbe preceding number (116), for a 
very complete analysis of the mechanism of the Prussian system. That 
system I cannot help thinking unnecessarily complicated. It is evi- 
dently modelled upon military notions of duties and responsibilities, 



148 PRUSSIAN TEACHERS: — LECTURESHIP OF DIDACTICS, 

one year, and the pupil proceeds at once to the business of the 
second, which is employed in giving him just notions of the phi- 
losophy of teaching, the treatment of the young mind, the com- 
munication of knowledge, the airangement of school business, 
the apparatus and evolutions necessary for arresting attention 
and husbanding time ; of all, in fine, that pertains to the theory 
and practice of moral education, intellectual training, and metho- 
dical instruction, — technically called Jr'aedagogik, Didactik, and 
Methodik. The third year is more particularly devoted to the 
object of reducing to practice, in the schools of the place, and 
in that which is always attached to the seminary, the methods 
and theory he has been made acquainted with. We refer for 
other details to our preceding number. It is more to our 
present purpose to remark, that there does not exist, nor ever 
has existed, in the island of Great Britain, a single institu- 
tion of this kind, which the Prussian people think so useful, thai 
they have voluntarily gene beyond the number prescribed by 
law. There were, at the close of 1831, thirty-three of these 
seminaries in the monarchy, which is more than one for each 
department or circle. 

" We cannot but think, therefore, that some effort should be 
made to apply part, at least, of the Parliamentary grant to the 
purpose of training schoolmasters, if it were only to mark the 
opinion of Government of the importance and necessity of such 
establishments; and to direct public attention to a branch of 
knowledge which, new and unexplored as it is amongst us, has 
long taken its place in the circle of the arts and sciences, and 
long had its literature and its votaries, in Germany. Any thing 
approaching, indeed, to the universal and permanent organization 
in that country (for it is by no means confined to Prussia), it 
would of course be vain to expect in this, at least for many years 
to come ; by means of opening up the subject, and commending 
it to the attention, not of teachers only and patrons of schools, 
but of the public generally, need not be regarded as out of our 
reach* Might not, for example, a lectureship or professorship 
of the art of teaching (or, if a name be wanted for the new sub- 
ject, of Didactics) be appended to one or two of the Scotch uni- 
versities ; and, if such a novelty could not be ingrafted on the 
old establishments of Oxford and Cambridge, tried, at least, in 
the infant institution of Durham ? A very small endowment, if . 
any, would be wanted, provided Parliament would make it im- 
perative on candidates for vacant schools (beginning at first with 
those of the better kjnd only), to produce a certificate of having 
attended such a course, or even to, undergo an examination on 
the subjects there treated. 5 * 

* "See some good remarks on this subject, in the Sketch of aPlara 
for the Education of Ireland, by R. J, Bryoe, principal of Belfast Aca- 
demy.. 1828," 



IMPROVEMENT OF SCOTTISH PARISH SCHOOLS. 149 

" It is obvious in contemplating such an arrangement as this, 
that the greatest difficulty would be to find fit persons for such 
an office, — a difficulty which would scarcely, however, last beyond 
the first appointment. And even with regard to that, we need 
scarcely look farther than to the burgh and parochial schoolmas- 
ters of Scotland. As a body, indeed, they are not beyond being 
greatly benefited by attendance on such a course as we propose ; 
but there are men among them, and the number -is on the in- 
crease, who, to an enthusiastic attachment to their profession, 
and a large experience of its practical details, add much know- 
ledge of its principles acquired by reading, and reflection, and an 
almost intuitive perception of what is right in the management 
of the youthful faculties, and in the manner of imparting instruc- 
tion. Philosophy and experience must go hand in hand, to fit 
a man for the purpose in view. If such lectureships were insti- 
tuted in places where there was access also to schools in which 
the doctrines might be illustrated, the practice exemplified, and 
the teaching partly conducted by the student, we should aceept 
it as the greatest boon that could be conferred on the parochial 
education of Scotland. There are few, perhaps none, of the de- 
fects that still cling to our parish schools which would not disap- 
pear under the wholesome influence of such a measure, carried 
ably and honestly into effect. For example, next to that mea- 
sure itself, there is nothing more loudly called for to improve our 
parochial discipline, than a plan of authorized inspection. This, 
we have seen^ is regarded as ah essential part of the Prussian 
and French system, and is executed by delegates appointed by 
the Minister of Public Instruction. It seems natural that the 
proposed lectures, with assistants, if required, should have this 
arduous duty devolved upon them. Again, a well-arranged suc- 
cession of school-books is still a desideratum : none would be so 
likely to supply it well, as men whose lives would be devoted to 
the study of their art. But if such a project shall appear to 
some, as we are prepared to expect, visionary and impracticable, 
let strenuous endeavoms be at least made to multiply the number 
and increase the efficiency of the model schools we have. There 
is an endowment for such an institution, called the Barrington 
School, at Bishop Auckland; and the Metropolitan schools of 
both the societies are open, and have been used for such pur- 
poses, as far as their means would go. To improve and assist 
these would be a far more profitable way of expending the 
grant, than to build schools for the propagation of imperfect 
methods." 



13* 



150 



CHAPTER VIIL 



DIFFICULTIES — OBSTACLES- — ENCOURAGEMENTS. 



Difficulties — Counteraction by adult population — Reaction upon them 
—Decrease of drunkenness — Course with adults — Incurable class- 
Edinburgh Association for cheap lectures — Provision for free in- 
struction to the adult workman — Schools of Arts — Denial of leisure 
to the manual labourer — Proposed restriction of labour — Workmen 
will restrict it— Farther restriction in factories— Poor Laws' abuses 
Criminal population.— Obstacles— Public indifference— Remote re- 
suits — Example of direct enjoyment from moral sentiments— Direct 
benefits— Great expense — Prejudice against educating the people — 
Existing interests— Sectarian zeal— Origin of clerical superintend- 
ence — Solecism in. our laws — Church in danger-'— Opposition to Lan- 
casterian Schools, "to London University, to Irish National Education 
—Parallel in Catholic bigotry in Glasgow — Practical inference- 
Appeal to the dominant sect, to the government, to the people.— En- 
couragements — Advocacy of Press — We are_ outstripped by other 
nations — Wishes of the Government and Legislature— Existence of 
improvements already— Education of all ranks together—Conclusion. 



•f :.'.J- P* £,; I. DIFFICULTIES. 

- In treating of this head, we are to suppose the great measure 
of popular education as a national object actually passed and in 
operation, and are now to consider the counteraction to its work- 
ing which is likely to be occasioned by existing social evils, and 
these in the very forms which education is meant to remove. 

1. The education of children, on the principles of this treatise, 
in the midst of an uneducated adult population, will certainly 
present the same kind of difficulties as those with which the hus- 
bandman would have to struggle, who should watch the growth 
of a few bushels of grain in a field overrun with weeds. His 
grain would grow under great disadvantages, but it would grow ; 
the increase sown again, a portion of the weeds having in the in- 
terval, by any means, disappeared, will yet more increase ; till 
the field, by this time well cleared, will he occupied, in its whole 
length and breadth, with good grain. The child of unfortunate 



COUNTERACTION BY ADULTS — REACTION. 151 

parents, who themselves suffer all the evils of ignorance and de- 
gradation, returns from our school, infant or advanced, into a 
society where every thing he has learned, or seen, or done, or 
enjoyed, is, as it were, reversed. In this society he must live for 
as long, if not a longer period, every day, than he remains in 
school ; and without doubt there must be a certain degree of re- 
trogression, a certain drag upon his progress, a step down, for at 
least every two steps up. But if there are two steps up for one 
down, and at the very least there will and must be this propor- 
tion, there is a step in advance on the whole, and this is an un- 
speakable gain. This acquisition will tell yet more in the next 
generation ; in it there will be still less retrograde motion, for 
the home will then have made a great advance towards harmony 
with the school ; till, perhaps in one generation more, the greatest 
improvement may be reached, to which it is reasonable to expect 
the manual-labour class to arrive. I have in reserve a word or 
two, in order to reconcile the reader, whom the idea may startle, 
of being called upon to legislate for posterity, to sow, at vast ex- 
pense, that which a generation, not even the next, shall reap ; of 
which we are not destined to see more than the incipient growth, 
and scarcely our children, the " whitening unto harvest." 

In the mean time I beg to request the attention of my alarmed 
reader to another element, and a powerful one, of more imme- 
diate operation in the progression, and that is the reaction on 
the adults of the improvement of the children, the blessed influ- 
ence of infant kindness, and cleanliness, and piety, upon a natu- 
rally well disposed but ignorant parent, nay upon even a harden- 
ed ; for the man who s,corns, perchance, the decencies of life, 
and spurns alike the precept and the example of pastors and well- 
wishers, will soften in the presence of his own gentle child, and 
shrink abashed from the unfinished grossness or excess, as it lisps 
at his knee the lesson of refinement and temperance. But the 
domestic influence of children, it is well known, increases as they 
rise in years; it is often, as things are, very great; but when 
they shall have the moral force of good habits and good sense on 
their side, they will come insensibly to take the lead of the im- 
becility of animal degradation, and will exercise a steady check 
upon their less favoured seniors, and a reforming power in their 
own homes.- 

If, then, the ignorant and immoral adult shall in some degree 
retard the improvement of the young, the improving young will 
act with an influence, and that always on the increase, on the 
adult, so that the balance of momentum will be onwards. The 
child of ten years of age, we shall suppose a girl, who attends 
the advanced, and has attended the infant school, will take, and 
the lazy parent will gladly yield to her, the care of the house ; 
the house will be cleaner and better aired ; the parents will purify 







152 DECREASE OP DRUNKENNESS. 



their persons when urged or shamed to do so by their child, who 
has moreover provided the means ; she wiil watch her father's 
return with his wages, and induce him to come home to some 
prepared comfort, instead of resorting to the pot-house, and re- 
maining there perhaps all the night, and all the next day ; she 
has learned the lesson in school, in a variety of forms, how a 
home is to be made more attractive than a public house, and she 
will soon see it her own happiness to act upon that knowledge, 
and to induce her mother to act with her. Our schools esta- 
blished in every quarter of the country, let the reader mark this, 
and actually educating the whole juvenile population, a pupil or 
two in every dwelling, cannot fail to act upon the adults, so as 
immensely to forward the general improvement.* 

As the plan of popular education advocated in this treatise 
concerns the young from two to fourteen years of age, there is, 
I have said, much discouragement, to the ^existing generation, 
in the idea of its distant fruits, in a social improvement which 
they are not to witness. Is there no means of extending some 
palliating portion of enlightenment to the vast mass of adults 
that now constitute the manual-labour classes 1 We cannot 
make them children again, and train them after the Wiiderspin 
fashion, or propose to open even advanced schools for them to 

* Since the first chapter of this treatise was printed, the question of 
the improvement or retrogression of the working classes in Edinburgh 
has been publicly discussed at the Town-Council Board ; and strong 
proofs, the result of very extensive inquiries, have been adduced by 
Mr. Macfarlane, one of the Magistrates, that workmen generally are 
improving in sobriety and steadiness. In his Historical Newspaper, No. 
18, Mr. Chambers comes to the same conclusion. I have been led also 
to make inquiries, and rejoice to say that employers very generally de- 
clare that there is improvement in their workmen in sobriety, and of 
course in steadiness. This- fact tends to increase the exceptions so 
liberally allowed in my first chapter, and it will do so still more, if the 
improvement extends to other places. The evil of drunkenness is 
nevertheless very general in the class below that to which employers 
look for respectable journeymen. It has already been shown to be fear- 
fully prevalent in manufacturing towns, and there is enough of it gene- 
rally to forbid relaxation of their efforts by the friends of mankind for 
its abatement ; while, the improvement already effected will tend to the 
production of yet earlier fruits, from an educational system which an 
improved moral will more readily welcome. After all, even the sober 
and steady workmen have much more to do before they get out of the 
pale of our first chapter ; their sobriety is an excellent commence- 
ment. _ It would be instructive to know how much of the increased so- 
briety is to be put to the credit of temperance vows; and how much of 
it is the fruit of voluntary prudence and principle. One example of the 
latter is worth a hundred of the former. I would strongly recommend 
to Mr. Macfarlane to prosecute his inquiries elsewhere, both in Scot- 
land and England, and favour the public with, what I am sure they will 
welcome, the results in a pamphlet. The very discussion will very 
generally offer a motive to workmen to deserve a favourable report. 



COURSE WITH ADULTS. 153 

make up their lost time ; but there is much we can do for them. 
We can make useful and entertaining; knowledge as cheap to 
them as coarse paper, by the abolition of all taxes upon it; — 
we can convey to them valuable instruction, in every parish, in 
the form of lectures by the national school teachers when esta- 
blished, by the minister of the parish, who ought to be qualified 
for this important duty, and by philanthropic and accomplished 
gentlemen,* resident in the parish or neighbourhood. 

A great deal taught in our advanced school, and a general 
notion of what is done in the infant school, might thus be impart- 
ed to existing adults ; while those who are inmates, and a 
great proportion will be, of the same families with pupils of 
these schools, will unavoidably be assailed with offered know- 
ledge on that side also, and find themselves, whichever way they 
turn, breathing as it were a purer atmosphere, and looking on 
a brighter day, than they have ever before experienced. This 
will be a glorious result of the universality of the national 
schools. There are individuals, whole classes indeed, plunged 
in ignorance and debasement, deeper than moral plummet ever 
sounded. Them, alas ! we cannot help. As long as they ab- 
stain from crime, — for when actually criminal there is another 
mode of disposing of them, to a view of which the appendix 
(No. I.) is devoted, — although they themselves will continue to 
suffer every social misery, the rest of society will suffer less 
and less, as the numbers of these moral incurables are diminish- 
ed, and as education's day-light shines more brightly upon even 
other spot of society but their own. 

Instruction perfectly adapted to the adult manual-labour po- 
pulation, will require deliberate consideration and arrangement ; 
but it is certain that much may be done to give them practical 
notions of their own nature, and of their place in creation and 
society ; much to remove their more hurtful ignorance, amend 
their habits, soften down their prejudices, and generally elevate 
their physical, moral and intellectual condition. I have already 
alluded to the association in Edinburgh for procuring cheap lec- 
tures on various branches of science ; the distinguished honour 
of the conception and realization of this institution belongs 
to a few respectable tradesmen; and I refer the reader, for an 
account of its constitution, proceedings, and most encouraging 
success in the very first year and half of its existence, to the ap- 
pendix, No. VI ; this is purposely particular, in order to enable 
him, if interested in the eJightenment of any other considerable 
town, to join with his fellow-citizens in forming a similar asso- 
ciation, and that of the same rank in life ; for this, be it observ- 
ed, is the grand novelty, which will form a sort of epoch in the 

* Sir George Mackenzie, well known to the scientific and literary 
world, has set a noble example of this society-improving novelty, by 
giving useful lectures in his own parish in Ros^shiie. 



154 INSTITUTIONS GRATIS TO ADULTS. 

history of Edinburgh ; and confer upon it a real name, instead of 
one borrowed from the fame of a few men of genius, whom it has 
occasionally produced. It is true that the class of students, of 
both sexes, who attend the lectures of the Edinburgh association, 
are generally above the class who work for days' wages, though 
many of them have done so ; and accordingly they pay a fee which, 
moderate as it is, the actual journeyman could not afford. I allude 
here to that association more to show the easy practicability of in- 
structing a hitherto uninstructed adult class, than to sanction the 
demand of money from the mere operative, who comes from his 
labour to be regaled with useful science ; this, like the instruction 
of the national schools to the young, must, a fortiori, to the less 
favoured adult, be as free as inviting; and the existence of the 
schools themselves, their -teachers, and their scientific materiel, 
will extend it directly, — I have already said it will do so influen- 
tially, — without an increase of expense worth the Nation's notice. 
What were the cost of a few models, drawings, an air-pump, a 
chymical furnace, an electrifying and galvanic machine, a teles- 
cope, a microscope, &c. established in each parish, compared 
with the delightful and improving occupation of its adult, over and 
above its juvenile population 1 The lessened jail to be built and 
maintained would provide these in every parish of a county, — to 
say nothing of the almost disbanded police, the reduced military 
establishment, the empty hospitals, the saved poor's rates. 

The Schools of Arts for the instruction of artizans in the prac* 
tical applications of science, which can only be established in 
large or considerable towns, will not only not be superseded by 
any preparatory establishment yet spoken of in this volume, but 
their usefulness will be thereby increased and extended manifold. 
These admirable institutions, placed, however, on a more popu- 
lar footing than they have hitherto been, like all other means of 
popular improvement, seeing that the^ whole country benefits by 
the skill, the industry, the enterprise, and the invention to which 
they have been found to give birth, ought also to be provided for 
by the Nation, and not Lusted to precarious voluntary support. 

2. The next difficulty in the way of the immediate and more 
distant working of an education.:! system, is the denial of leisure 
to the working man. This social enormity, this sacrifice to the 
Moloch of money, must by some means be abated, else education 
is vain, and the elevation of the manual-labour class of our coun- 
trymen a moral impossibility. The reform must begin in the 
sanction, by society at large, of less extravagant ideas of accumu- 
lation than at present impel all who possess the means, to en- 
grossing and ceaseless efforts to make large fortunes. A higher 
moral will impress the conviction that wealth accumulated at the 
expense of the bodily suffering,' moral and intellectual degrada- 
dation, and religious privation, of a large portion of our fellow 
men, is obtained by means little short of criminal. However he 



PROPOSED RESTRICTION OP LABOUR. 155 

may despair of any volnntury relaxation of the gripe of avarice 
fastened on the devoted bodies and souls of the human machines 
whom it commands, the most impracticable skeptic must admit 
that all labour beyond the limit of a reasonable, a liberal, return 
to the capitalist, is a grcss abuse, which must be followed by 
social as well as individual suffering. If this be true, it was not 
the Creator's intention that manual labour should engross nearly 
the whole waking hours of a human being. When he bestowed 
intellect and moral feelings on all his creatures, he intended them 
in all for exercise and enjoyment; hence it is a gross impiety to 
force upon any human being a course of life which obliterates 
these distinctive characters of humanity. Difficult as must be 
the remedy, for it implies an advance of society at large in mo- 
rality beyond what it has ever yet manifested, the existing prac- 
tice is a positive disease, an unnatural state of things, and there- 
fore not only calling for amendment, but admitting of it, else the 
Creator's arrangements would involve manifest contradiction. 
Why should" manual-labour exceed nine hours a-day] Why 
should it not, by general consent of employers and employed, be 
so restricted ? Twelve hours isdtself a restriction, for why does 
insatiable avarice content itself with even twelve? It does so 
in obedience to custom, and it would do so, on the same authority, 
were nine hours the maximum. If it is said that less work 
would be done, less produce realized ; it is granted, but asked 
who would suffer by this ! Suppose the employer's gains di- 
minished, this is surely not to be put in comparison with the la- 
bourer's rights as a human being. But it is not admitted that 
the employer's gains will be diminished. The difference between 
nine and twelve hours is not more than to meet the over-trading 
from which he has so often suffered, and from which he is 
inevitably, with his present motives destined to suffer again. 
In the average of the last fifteen years, the actually profitable 
labour, that which would have prevented ruinous gluts, and long 
intervals of idleness and starvation to the workman, will not be 
found, if spread over the whole time, to amount even to nine 
hours a-day.^ Aided, besides, by daily improving machine ;_y, A 
whose abridgment of human labour surely the operative has a 
right to a share of the benefit as well as his employer, it might be 
demonstrated that nine hours a-day of British manual-labour will 
supply all the steady demand that is likely to be made upon it. 
The shortening of the hours of labour is a moral reform to which 
the w r orkmen themselves must lend an important aid, in a great 
improvement of character which will make such a use of the 
leisure as will secure the sympathies of the entire people. 
While the leisure desired is at present refused, because it would 
be spent in idleness and debauchery, there is a moral fitness in 
the concession of it to self-improvement and innocent enjoyment, 
which render it matter of right. We as; ime ii.atthe manual- 



156 FARTHER RESTRICTION IN FACTORIES. 

labour class are actually improved by education ; one result o( 
this will be juster estimates, by the operatives, of the labourer's re- 
muneration, more moderate expenditure when debauchery has 
ceased, the economy of steady habits and sensible methods of 
living, and an equitable adjustment of wages to work actually 
done. These it is not likely would much fall, if the shorter hours 
were universally adopted. This reform must not only affect 
labour without, but also within, great factories ; for the principle 
is the same in both cases. The factory act itself which has 
rescued infant life from the unhallowed altar of accumulation, 
stops short of the adequate means of education : it prohibits the 
employment of children till they are nine years of age, and limits 
it then to nine hours a-day, till the age of eleven, twelve, and ul- 
timately thirteen: it requires two hours' attendance at school for 
six days in the week, these hours not being included in the nine. 
I acknowledge that, besides all the infant school training, such 
children may have had three years of the advanced school with- 
out restraint ; but two hours a-day for the more advanced age of 
that school is too short an attendance ; two more, or four hours 
in all, at least, should be made imperative, the additional two 
hours to be taken from the nine hours of labour, till the child 
completes his or her fourteenth year. The parents themselves 
are, at present, as likely to object to this restriction of labour as 
the employers; but we do not find that they have been consulted 
in the matter of the regulations already imposed ; the benevolent 
object of the legislature was the child's good and thereby the 
good of society ; an enlightened lawgiver, acting upon a higher 
morality, is not bound to regard interests which justice disowns, 
and may quite as properly fix seven hours as nine. Seven hours 
is labour enough for a child under fourteen^ independent of all 
other considerations ; but when this degree of abridgment is 
essential to the individual's reaping any real and lasting benefit 
from the educational system proposed, there seems an end of the 
question. I may add, that an educated generation of manu- 
facturing labourers will value education more than an ignorant 
and debased ; and will themselves zealously cooperate in the 
means of their children's enjoying its advantages. As it stands, 
the factory law will operate as a serious difficulty, amounting to an 
absolute impediment in the way of the working of a national edu- 
cational measure, in so far as regards the whole manufacturing 
population; but I cannot allow myself to doubt that a modifica- 
tion of that law, to the extent above suggested, would form a part 
of a great plan of national education ; from the blessings of 
which it would be grievous injustice and impolicy deliberately to 
exclude the manufacturing population. 

3. The English Poor laws, it is hoped, will not be permitted 
te ng, in their present frightful perversion, to act as an impedi- 
ment to popular education. In the present state of the popula- 



CRIMINAL POPULATION. 157 

lion, who are reduced to the moral debasement of able-bodied 
pauperism, the education of their children, if accepted by them 
even gratuitously,* would be inoperative, in the faee-of the per- 
verted views of life which the allowance-system renders habitual 
to all the members of all their families. Without an abatement 
of the grand nuisance of an alms-supported people, education need 
not be attempted. But the day of that abatement has already 
dawned, and will not set without effecting it. It is alluded to 
here more with the hope of furnishing another motive for perse- 
verance in the reformation of the poor laws, than from any fear 
that the education measure will find this difficulty existing, to 
impede its working, when it shall coine into operation. I repeat 
what 1 formerly stated on t T iis head, that the Commissioners are 
right, when, in the conclusion of their able report, they declare 
their conviction, that whatever the law may do to put down its 
actual practice, the .spirit of pauperism will 'only yield to the 
moral and intellectual improvement of the working classes, by a 
national system of education. 

4. The Criminal population must be unsparingly segregated 
from the innocent, if it is wished to remove yet another counter- 
acting power to the operation of education. Every criminal is- a 
centre of corruption to the young. The havoc made by practis- 
ed proselyting thieves among the young, even among the infant, 
poor, is notorious ; and would continue to overbalance all that edu- 
cation is capable of doing with the class immediately exposed to 
the contamination of their society. I have elsewhere* endea- 
voured to show, that criminals ought not to mingle at all with 
honest society ; that a state of restraint and seclusion must come* 
to be the lot of all convicted offenders ; a distinct society, an 
asylum, a hospital fitted for their disease, in which they must 
remain, maintaining themselves by their own labour, till it be 
safe to receive them again into ordinary society. Live some- 
where and in some way they must; at present they roam, like 
beasts of prey, in the midst of us, plundering and often maiming 
and murdering the unsuspecting. Society is entitled to full 
protection from this monstrous evil ; and should provide, what 
it may do without any sacrifice either of pioperty or feeling, 
another mode of life for its dangerous members, with the means 
at once of subsistence and reformation. This purification of 
society would be one of the greatest benefits which could be con- 
ferred upon it; and the practicability of its attainment, it is hoped, 
will be admitted by the reader when he has perused, which he is 
requested to do, the treatise in the appendix. 

* Appendix No. I. 
14 



158 PUBLIC INDIFFERENCE'. 

II. Obstacles. 

None of the difficulties just treated of are of a nature, or will 
t>ccur in a class of the people, likely toinfluence the fate of the 
plan of popular education, as a legislative measure. Under the 
title of obstacles I am briefly to consider obstructions, by influ- 
ence or other means, to the measure becoming the law of the land. 
" 1. The first obstacle is of a negative, but not therefore less 
powerful, nature, namely, public indifference. There is an 
apathy, On the subject, in the great majority of the educated 
classes which would be altogether unaccountable, considering 
the important interest of every member of society in the gene- 
ral enlightenment, on any other conceivable ground but ignorance 
of that importance, arising from, what was formerly called, the 
imperfect education of the educated classes themselves. Hopes 
may be indulged of this obstacle. It will give way to informa- 
tion ; it will yield to the persevering efforts of the press, the re- 
flex influence of legislative discussion, and the authority of the 
men to whom the public are accustomed to look as guides of 
their opinions. There is more hope of the apathy of ignorance, 
than of the self-satisfaction of contentment with matters as they 
are. There are many who iook upon the current education for 
all ranks in this country, as a model of perfection. As the 
Edinburgh. Review, (No. 116, page 541,) says, "We are even 
ignorant of our wants. In fact the difficulty of all educational 
improvement in Britain, lies less in the amount, however enor- 
mous, of work to be performed, than in the notion that not a 
great deal is requisite. Our pedagogical ignorance is only 
equalled by our pedagogical conceit; and Where few are com- 
petent to understand, all believe themselves qualified to decide." 
The habit, now 150 years old, of lauding the Scottish parochial 
schools, and crediting them with all the intelligence and mora- 
lity which is said, to an ex-tent beyond all truth, to characterize 
the manual-labour class of our countrymen,. has-been, and is yet, 
an obstacle of the self-complacent kind. This can only be ex- 
pected to yield to evidence of its own absurdity, and a compari- 
son of what parish schools are, with what they may be made. 
Just views of what education ought to be, and of the immea- 
surable distance between thai and what it has hitherto been, 
added to a more sensible practical belief than the prevailing, 
that if schools de facto exist, education is provided for, be these 
schools and their teachers what they may, will all tend to lessen 
the force of the obstacles of indifference and contentment, and 
ultimately to remove them entirely. 

2. The remoteness of the beneficial results of the plan at 
first sight presents an obstacle to its adoption. This motive to 
opposition has been already alluded to. Itjwere to legislate, it 



REMOTE RESULTS. 159 

is said, for posterity — to sow what we shall not live to reap, &c. 
all as before enumerated. If it were true, as it is not, that we 
of the present generation shall derive no benefit from the pro- 
gress, nay even from the commencement of this moral resolu- 
tion, we should be bound, nevertheless, to effect it, when, in the 
nature of things, it can only be accomplished by one generation, 
to be fully enjoyed by another. It is a low morality which would 
recklessly throw our burdens upon our successors, to work out 
their deliverance from these as they may, but refuse the slightest 
sacrifice for their benefit. .A succeeding generation owes, its 
existence to the present, and has a claim, in justice as well as 
benevolence, to inherit all our accumulations of wealth and 
knowledge, and a right to repfoach us with a great sin in the 
Creator's sight, if we have selfishly shrunk from the duty which 
he has inscribed on His great plan, that one generation shalL 
often sow the seed, that another may gather the harvest. This 
duty extends from the planting of a young tree, to the enlight- 
ening of a people. To decline our share in the means of the 
progression of the human race, when we have arrived at light 
enough to show us the way, would be a moral prostration which 
would stigmatize an age. No ! no ! This will never be the re- 
proach of a generation which has just struck off the chains of a 
million of slaves! Such an act exalts a'people above all the 
barbarous glory of battles fought and regions conquered. ItSr 
reeord is on high, far beyond the loftiest region to which the- 
eagles of a Cesar or a Napoleon ever soared. History has 
opened a bright, a spotless, a virgin page, fcr that achievement. 
Shame to the British people if she shall ever close that page 
again ! 

I rejoice in this occasion of illustrating, by so fine an exam- 
ple, the direct enjoyment which, it was formerly said, results 
from the exercise of the moral sentiments. Benevolence, Jus- 
tice, and Veneration will feel delight in the very thought of the 
realization of a plan to enlighten, and morally and religiously 
elevate, a whole people ; will eagerly forward it, and purchase it 
at any price of treasure and of labour. A legitimate self-esteem 
is well entitled here to supply its share of motive, and make us 
proud that, in the course of Providence, it has fallen to our times 
to do this great thing ; to preside over the culture, assured that 
our children, and our children's children, will gather the in- 
crease. Yes ! there are minds of glorious loftiness, — minds that 
would do a deed to bless mankind, and be content to die. La- 
voisier w T aited the moment when a great truth should be revealed 
in the results of a scientific process in which he was intensely 
engaged, when they came to lead him to the scaffold. He en- 
treated to have three days granted him to urown the great work 
of the new chymistry. Robespierre refused an hour, and, like 
the caitiff who struck down Archimedes, murdered Lavoisier? 



160 GREAT EXPENSE. 

Heroism like this is not now before us ; but I trust there are 
many of my countrymen, who, if it were propounded to them f 
whether their satisfaction would be the greater, to aid in effect- 
ing the glorious scheme of Popular Education, or to live in ano- 
ther generation and passively taste its fruits, would choose the 
glory of the enterprise, rather than the sweets of the result; and 
would avow that there is an expansion of feeling, a dilatation of 
heart, a lofty ambition even, in being permitted to be the actors 
in a work to have such consequences in another generation, 
which gives them to live, as it were, in both periods, to enjoy 
alike the springtide and the autumn, and, like Abraham, to see 
he day afar off and be glad. 

But besides the rich reward of the consciousness of having 
done a great duty, we shall not go unbeneflted more substantially 
in our own day. The more we reflect upon what was called the 
reaction on the adult of the improvement of the young who live 
under the same roof with him, the more we shall see reason to 
expect a general melioration speedily to spread as widely as our 
schools are established ; while the very existence, in every pa- 
rish in the country, of a teacher of useful knowledge, who, when 
iwt occupied with the young, may, by many means, as already- 
observed, enlighten their seniors, and thereby render the circular 
4ion of cheap periodical literature and knowledge yet more im- 
proving to them, will realize one of the most powerful engines of 
humanization, of which it is possible to conceive. The whole 
population, juvenile and adult, will be placed in a new position, 
the one rapidly advancing, the other unwilling, nay ashamed, — 
for this even is much, — to remain behind; and trie effects will 
be made sensible to us all in a well marked melioration even of 
our own times. 

3. A more substantial obstacle to the gigantic measure pro- 
posed, is its admitted and avowed costliness. It will require 
much light to reconcile the country to contribute millions to 
produce distant benefits, and these not yet appreciated or 
acknowledged. But no price is enormous which is not out of 
rale, out of proportion, to the thing purchased. The elevation 
of an entire people by education is beyond all price. Two 
thousand millions lavished on the ivars of the last and the pre- 
sent century is indeed an enormous expenditure, when we sit 
down to estimate the value received. Should we deem even 
that almost inconceivable sum misspent, if its result, and its sole 
result, had been the education of the British people 1 The one- 
hundredth part of this treasure has abolished colonial slavery j 
what would a like amount not do in the object before us; and 
would any enlightened mind say that that object would not be 
cheaply purchased '. How much should we not cherish peace, anct 
avoidance of all great public expenditures while national educa- 
tion is yet to he provided for { 



PREJUDICE AGAINST EDUCATION". 161 

4. I was about to enumerate among the obstacles a yet lin- 
gering prejudice against educating the people at all, but I feel 
almost ashamed to do so, at this time of da)'. A few observa- 
tions were submitted upon this topic at the close of the first chap- 
ter. The prejudice is a remnant or the worst times, and its de- 
tection to be so is as old as Aristotle, who observed, that its 
only a system of government which sacrifices the many to the 
few that dreads the diffusion of knowledge, which qualifies men 
to know and assert their rights ; whereas a good government 
ensourages education, were it for nothing else than to enable the 
governed to appreciate the blessings which they enjoy. But it 
ought to be recollected by the most wedded to old habits of judg- 
ing, that the time has gone by for conserving that popular 
ignorance in which they erroneously think that innocence is en- 
shrined ; the least informed of the manual-labour class in this 
country can detect a lurking politics in the pious concern that 
the poor man shall learn to read his Bible, hut no more. To 
read his Bible with application and effect, every intelligent per- 
son knows, he ought to learn a great deal more. But it were to 
recapitulate this treatise, to state what that more should be ; and 
with a general reference to what has been said as to what the 
poor man's education should be, to render him at once good ancf 
happy, and withal the safe member of society which the restric- 
tor of his knowledge would wish him to be ; — I shall pass on-, 
from the humiliating objection. 

5. There are too many lucrative incumbencies and exclusive 
privileges dependant upon the continued reign of the defective 
education, which at present cheats both the poor and the rich, 
to allow us to expect that a fundamental change in principle and 
practice, whose operation will be to empoverish the incumben- 
cies and annihilate the privileges, will be effected without the 
most strenuous opposition,— the most strenuous certainly of all, 
— from those interested quarters. The opposition of principle 
is often keen, but the obstruction of interest is always furious, — 
there is no surer test of its presence. An enlighrened and ho- 
nest legislature will, of course, give every interest the most de- 
liberate consideration, and provide for all direct, and not merely 
consequential, loss, adequate compensation ; but this is not the 
age for sacrificing a great national good to any mere interest or 
mere privilege whatever. It is superfluous here to say another 
word on this topic ; existing interests require no more than a 
place in our catalogue of obstacles. 

6. But sectarian zeal yet remains, and that has hitherto been, 
and will yet be, the most formidable obstacle with which a Na- 
tional system of popular education will have to contend. There 
exist between seventy and eighty sects of Christians. The 
aealots of every sect most conscientiously entertain the opinion 
that the only chance for the youth of the country obtaining what 

14* 



16^ SECTARIAN Z£AL« 

it calls a religious education, is to place the sole direction of 
education, secular and religious, in its peculiar bands. Most 
sects, so empowered, would then proceed to instil into the 
young, nay, even the infant mind, theology almost exclusively. 
This is the only idea the sects, if zealous, attach to education 
on a religious basis. It must begin with the creed and cate- 
chism of the sect, and never for a moment be permitted to lose 
sight of either. The consequence is, that loth become objects 
of tedium and disgust, and neither .religions nor secular know- 
ledge is attained. No one can have read this treatise without 
observing that religious education, or, what is the same thing, 
education on a religious basis, is strenuously advocated in it ; 
only a different mode, and a different order of inculcation are 
recommended, because of the signal failure of the prevailing 
method. While, in the order proposed, secular education pre- 
cedes the inculcation of Revelation, it cannot be said by the most 
scrupulous that it excludes it. By secular education the pupil 
is introduced to the God of Nature. He desiderates a Creator 
as the author of the wonders unfolded to him in creation,, and, as 
it were, discovers him in his works. Thus prepared, he pro- 
ceeds to find that the God of Nature is the God of Revelation. 
Is it wise to reverse this order 1 Is it not impious to exclude 
one-half of if] There is, in most countries, and our own among 
the rest, one sect politically stionger than the other; and the 
impression is not unnatural, among its less instructed adherents, 
that therefore its doctrines and discipline must be right, and those 
of all other sects wrong. Its better informed members do not 
found its merits on its political strength, but conscientiously be- 
lieving that their sect is the soundest, see no harm in using their 
political connexion to extend their influence, — that influence be- 
ing by them, of course, identified with the cause of true religion. 
Into the hands of ihe dominant sect education has, de facto, 
fallen almost exclusively. In England, and in Scotland too, 
every school is under clerical superintendence, and four out of 
five teachers are, in some degree, or other, in clerical orders. 
There was another reason for this than a concern for the inte- 
rests of religion, when the custom began. The clersy were the 
only educated persons, hence their name, and the only persons 
capable of educating others. Laymen were educated by the 
monks, who kept daily school in the convents. There is a 
habit of thinking hence arising, centuries old, that it is quite na- 
tural that the clergy should educate the young. But it is too 
instructive to be here left unnoticed, that" the dominant sect in 
one of the two kingdoms of the British Union, is not the domi- 
nant sect in the other; and that each of the two dominant sects 
avails itself of its political alliance, in the country where it is 
dominant, to prevent the other from educating the youth of that 
country, as not worthy of confidence in giving education a reli- 



POWER OF THE TWO DOMINANT SECTS. 163 

gious basis ; and the solecism stares us in the face of existing 
laws, sanctioned by the same legislature, — for they are sanction- 
ed when unrepealed, — declaring both the dominant sects un- 
worthy of the care of the education of youth !* The practical 
conclusion from this ineffable position of our statute-book, is too 
obvious to require to be drawn in words. It recalls the appro- 
priate reply (without disrespectful application to either of our 
two dominant sects,) of the patron of a vacant office, when beset 
by a dozen of suiters, whose recommendations, by each of him- 
self, resolved into insinuations or direct declarations that the 
other eleven were scoundrels ; the dispenser of the place waited 
till the whole twelve had thus denounced each other, when he 
assembled and informed them that he sincerely believed them all. 
The dominant sect on the southern side of the Tweed has 
been not only more jealous of its legalized control over educa- 
tion, but from its direct share in the Legislature, over and above 
its indirect influence, it possesses much more power to guard 
and vindicate that control, than belongs to the dominant sect on 
the north of the same river : and it has resulted from this that 
the former has, when it was thought necessary, always moved 
with greater energy and greater effect than the latter. Iden- 
tifying religion with the church establishment, it was long 
thought reason enough to object to any measure, that it endan- 
gered the church ; and, for generations, there was an approved 
watchwoid for the hour of fancied peril. That cry has come so 
much into disrepute, from its notorious and truly unconcealable 
political and patrimonial meaning, that we have nearly cea?ed to 
hear it. It has therefore become imperative to substitute for it 
something more entitled to respect, namely, that religion is in 
danger. But seeing that, in many cases, one sect alone sees 
this danger, and that the dominant sect, while all the rest deny 
it, the chances are seventy or eighty to one that it is not re- 
ligion which is in danger, but the forms and endowments of it 
which distinguish and pertain to one sect, which happens to be do- 
minant, and to rest on political power; and this just brings us 
back to the old watchword, that the church is in danger. The 
symptoms of this lurking truth cannot be mistaken by the impar- 
tial. When in England there existed no means whatever, either 
secular or religious, fur educating the manual-labour classes, the 
dominant sect w T as tranquil and contented ; religion was in no 
danger when nothing was taught at all. But when the disco- 
very was made, that, by a particular method, instruction might be 

* This is actually true. The English laws not only exclude the pres- 
byteriafis of Scotland from teaching in any public school or college, but 
exclude them, when only learning, from obtaining the evidence of their 
completed studies. The Scotch laws do not exclude learners, but 
teachers in the universities and public schools must qualify by signing 
the Confession of Faith. 



164 J. LANCASTER — SUBSTITUTION OF BELL SYSTEM. 

conveyed to large numbers at once, and the education of th© 
mass of the people be thereby made cheap and practicable, the 
dominant sect roused itself from its long repose, and violently 
obstructed the noble plan. Its promoter was a dissenter. He 
pleaded, in vain, that his method of dispensing secular education 
to numbers under one instructer, did not and could not injure re- 
ligion, inasmuch, as, in. order to be useful to the children of se- 
venty or eighty sects, it did not teach the doctrines of any one of 
these sects, and carefully avoided going beyond the admitted basis 
of them all. This was satisfactory to nearly all sects except the 
politically dominant and nationally endowed. Religion by almost, 
all other sects, was held to be perfectly safe, each sect reserving 
the means in its power to inculcate its peculiar doctrines on the 
children of its own members. It was intellectually and morally 
impossible that this was not the secret conviction of the leaders 
of the dominant sect ; and, accordingly, the objection changed its 
character, and came to be, that no religion was taught under the 
new system. Now this, had it been true, which it was not, was 
precisely the kind of provision previously made by the dominant 
sect itself for religious education,- — that is, no provision at all. 
A-propos, another apostle of the same new system arose, who, 
although resident in the antipodes, chanced to be of the sect 
dominant in England, and was willing to give to its religious 
forms and discipline, a prominent place in his practice: and al- 
though he did not make the minutest variation in the principle of 
the new system, the credit of introducing which to the British 
people was his rival's, he was brought home identified with the 
new method, and the very name of the other annihilated. What 
will an enlightened and more moral posterity say to this ! In 
Scotland as an additional proof at once of the Lancasterian system 
not being dangerous to religion, and of a less prevalent identifi- 
cation of religion with the dominant sect, there was a very ge- 
neral disapprobation of the course pursued by the adherents of the 
sister Church, arid the system and the name of Lancasterian 
continued, and still continues to be adopted and used in Scot- 
land, where all sects are found in the classes of the schools ; 
while in England the national or Bell schools are avoided by all 
sects that conscientiously dissent from the church. 

The next noted occasion for the opposition of the dominant 
sect in England, was the plan of facilitating the acquisition of. 
secular education to the great population of London, by the 
establishment of a University. As it would have been to limit 
its usefulness, to have inculcated religion in it according to the 
doctrines of any particular sect, it was resolved that revealed 
religion directly taught — for natural religion is taught in every 
step of science — should not be included in its plan, which was 
limited to secular knowledge ; and that was considered perfectly 



OPPOSITION TO IRISH SYSTEM. 165 

consistent with religious safety, seeing there existed the most 
extensive and the best endowed machinery for its inculcation 
without the walls of the University, all over the country. No 
disinterested or impartial person, capable of judging, could pos- 
sibly find fault with this most reasonable compromise, which was 
necessary to render the new institution extensively Useful. In 
Scotland, the great majority approved the plan of the London 
University, as an institution for the specific object of secular 
knowledge, in which there was nothing more incompatible with 
religion, than in a course of instruction in the fine arts, or the 
physical sciences ; certainly nothing nearly so inconsistent with 
Christianity, as a course of authorized heathenism in the Greek 
and Latin Classics, which the Church have not only not dis- 
covered to be dangerous to religion, but have connected with its 
study ; — so inconsistent are the acts and judgments of men, 
when inferior feelings lurk in their motives. Yet no opposition 
was deemed too strong, no obloquy too acrimonious, for the Lon- 
don University, " that God-excluding seminary !" The folly of 
this last imputation— seeing that no seminary which: teaches 
science, can for one instant exclude God — becomes something 
worse when it is the cry of a sect, which presumptuously identi- 
fies God with its own exclusive dogmas ; and greatly worse still, 
if there mingles one atom of worldly interest or political parti- 
zanship in the most incogitate denunciation. It was to be ex- 
pected that the dominant sect, which never before thought of a 
University to protect religion in London, should forthwith find 
that instrument indispensable to religious safety, and King's 
College owed its birth to the purest zeal for that religion which 
the seminary in Gower-street endangered. 

The balance thus restored in the Metropolis, the dominant 
sect was at ease, and went to bed again for a few years, when it 
was summoned to the post of danger a third time, by the alarm 
that a national plan was on foot for the education of the mass of 
the people in Ireland, in which, t© render it available, not only 
to Protestants but to Catholics, it w T as resolved to exclude creeds 
and catechisms, and inculcate Scripture by lessons introductory 
to the Sacred Volume, differing in no respect from the method 
of all persons who treat of Scripture with children. In vain it 
was arranged that the pastors of any sects, having children at- 
tending the National schools, should, at stated periods, come into 
the very school-houses, and assemble, each their own pupils, for 
their own religious instruction ; that was nothing to the domi- 
nant sect ; nay, was, beyond all doubt, the part of the plan it 
most disliked. But a tangible ground fc, a cry was necessary, 
and perhaps a more insensate, if not unfair, never was devised, 
the lessons were said to be " mutilations" of the Holy Scriptures ! 
That which has been and is done in the school hooks, and school 
and pastoral teaching of the whole empire, beyond all memory 



166 CATHOLIC BIGOTRY IN GLASGOW. 

of man, — that which must be done when a chapter or text is 
selected from an entire Bible, which the pupil holds in his hand 
at the moment, when he is asked to tell what he has read f was 
called mutilationof the Sacred Volume }* But the most humilia- 
ting fact in this opposition remains behind; it was discovered 
and made public that the plan proposed for the national schools 
of Ireland, was the literal transcript of a plan to which the domi- 
nant sect made no objection, when that plan was proposed by 
another party in the state four years before. This gave a new 
aspect to the opposition to the national system ; it connected it 
with politics, and annihilated all its moral weight, and of course 
its efficiency. A rival system is in steady operation, according 
to the old established custom, which excludes the Catholics, or 
four- fifths of the population. 

There cannot be a better way of testing the reasonableness of 
all this, than trying how the converse looks when another ex- 
clusive, though in Britain happily not dominant, sect distin- 
guishes itself in the matter of school instruction. In Glasgow 
there are estimated to be 27,000 Catholics, constituting, accord- 
ing to Dr. Cleland, the very lowest class of the people. The 
following is an extract from a small volume, entitled " Infant 
training, a dialogue explanatory of the system adopted in the 
Model Infant School, Glasgow, by a Director." " During the 
spring of last year (1832) about sixty Catholic children were 
enrolled in an Infant School, with the full consent of their pa- 
rents, who, in every case, brought their children, and paid the 
ordinary quarter's wages in advance. No sooner, however, did 
their superiors discover one of the Society's hand-bills, descrip- 
tive of the general object and bearing of such establishments, 
which had been widely circulated among the families in the 
neighbourhood, than on the following week every child was with- 
drawn, and no parent has yet returned to claim any part of the 
wages so advanced. Since that period, out of the surrounding 
dense Catholic population, an occasional mother has brought her 
child, and continues to do it, as if by stealth. The mother hur- 
riedly pays the wages, expresses great desire to have her child 
taught l .ih Bible stories,, equal to neighbour such a one's,' en- 
joining at the same time the utmost secrecy, lest by any possi- 
bility her name might reach the ears of certain high officials. 
This frightful hand-bill was framed by the Rev. Dr. Welsh of 
St. David's, Glasgow, now Professor of Church History in the 
University of Edinburgh, and, during the last six years, has been 
uniformly used in every handbill respecting Infant Schools. It 
runs as follows : — 

* In the Appendix No. VII. will be found an extract from the Irish 
Commissioners' first Report, printed by order of the House of Com- 
mons. It is most satisfactory. Scripture leading, in any form, should 
be optional to Catholics, Jews, &c, 



PRACTICAL INFERENCE. 166 

ei Infant Schools are intended for the reception of children 
from the age of two to that of six years, with the view of imbu- 
ing their minds with the knowledge of religious truths — of train- 
ing them up in habits of obedience and good order, and of giving 
them such elementary instruction as will enable them to enter 
with advantage into parochial and other schools. The plan of 
communicating religious truth is by the narratives, the precepts, 
and plainest announcements of Scripture." 

What is the practical inference from such facts as these? Is 
it not that the example of Prussia should be followed; and, in 
order that the schools to be provided by the nation shall be bene- 
ficial to the nation, that all direction of the schools of secular in- 
struction shall be denied to sects, as such, dominant and dissent- 
ing ; and that all schools shall be constituted on the principle 
adopted by the Model Infant Schools of Edinburgh and Glasgow, 
and by many others, both infant and advanced, all over the coun- 
try. The author begs to protest against the construction of one 
word above written, as intending disrespect to the dominant sect 
of either England or Scotland. To the latter he himself belongs ; 
but has never considered himself as a member of more than of a 
seet; while he entertains charitable and respectful feelings to- 
wards all other conscientious sectarians. Were- he to enter a 
child of his own at the infant or advanced school, under the pro- 
posed national plan, he would do so without demanding or ex- 
pecting any deference to his own dogmas more than was shown, 
or he should wish to be shown, to those of any other sectarian 
who placed his child there. He would know that his chief ob- 
ject for his child in school was secular knowledge, and that he 
possessed another, and, in his own view, a much fitter school, 
elsewhere, for religious instruction, in which the pastors of his 
own persuasion are the teachers ; but he should be sorry indeed 
to see even those pastors influencing the general religious inculca- 
tion of the secular school, and thereby driving away from it the 
children of all other conscientious sects. The author is farther 
aware that what he has now said will be approved of by a. very 
large proportion of the clergy of Scotland, many of whom sanc- 
tion and give active assistance to infant and other schools esta- 
blished upon what is called the liberal footing. 

Nothing more is wanted than the degree of liberality now ad- 
vocated to obtain for Britain at large the invaluable boon of popu- 
lar education. If dominant sects are listened to, we shall never 
see the day of its coming ; our people will remain uneducated 
secularly, uneducated religiously, and in their present state of 
debasement and suffering. It is trusted, it is entreated, that the 
conscientious of the dominant sects will lay the state of the 
question to heart, for it has come to this issue, education to 
-embrace all sects, or no education ! Let them not, by hold- 
ing out, defeat both our object and their own. The Govern- 



168 ENCOURAGEMENTS — THE PRESS. 

ment once persuaded that this is the alternative, — and there can be 
little doubt that they are so persuaded, and moreover that a large 
majority of the Legislature are so too, — ought not to wait till 
they succeed in removing prejudices and reconciling clashing 
interests. On them a tremendous responsibility rests; the state 
of the country calls for the education of the people with a 
voice which overwhelms the dull and feeble tone of secta- 
rian opposition. An immense increase of political power has 
been given to a class as yet but imperfectly educated. Is it 
reasonable to expect a wise use of that power, without a 
great enlargement of the means of education 1 ? Let the oppo- 
nents of such extension of enlightenment reflect that they cannot 
deprive the people of their political power, by refusing them the 
means of using it well and wisely. Finally, let the people do 
their duty to themselves, and demand from the nation that intel- 
lectual and moral elevation, to which their burdens, their labour, 
their common nature, entitle them. 

III. Encouragements. 

Difficulties and obstacles, let us hope, lessened or removed, 
the author's concluding topic has a more animating title. Our 
hopes that the day of popular enlightenment has actually dawned 
are various. 

1. The Press has for some time powerfully advocated this 
grand necessity. The lead has been taken by the Edinburgh 
Review. A greater proportion of its pages have been devoted 
by this Journal to the subject, than by any other ; and there has 
been a gradual enlargement of its views during the last sixteen 
years ; so as to give reason to hope, that it will soon go all the 
lengths of this treatise. Decidedly next it in labour and libe- 
rality, and equal in eloquence and power, on the subject, is the 
Foreign Quarterly Review. The Westminster Review advo- 
cates popular education; the Quarterly Review fears the effect 
of over-educating. 

The Quarterly Journal of Education, published under the 
superintendence of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful 
Knowledge, now thirteen numbers old, is an invaluable reposi- 
tory of information and sound principle. The labours of this 
Society, generally, are above all praise. 

Professor Pillans, of the University of Edinburgh, in his 
"Letters to Thomas Kennedy, Esq." has made a powerful con- 
tribution to the light existing on the subject; especially by ex- 
posing the absurdities which are-, to this day 5 sanctioned in 
schools. Mr. Combe's lectures have been already referred to, 
as have Dr. Drummond's Letters. ^The daily and weekly press 
afford more examples of zealous national educationists than I 



ADVOCACV OF THE PRESS. 169 

feave space to enumerate. In London, the Courier, Times, 
'Morning Chronicle, Herald, Spectator, and Examiner, may be 
particularized. In Edinburgh, the Scotsman is pre-eminent on 
the subject, having in December and January 1828-9, published 
a series of leading articles, which might be collected into a 
volume worthy of the front rank of the discussion. The Edin- 
burgh Weekly Chronicle ably supports the same cause, as a 
direct consequence of its liberal and philanthropic principles, 
In Glasgow, the Free Press advocates national education ; and 
throughout the provincial press there is much doing to recon- 
cile the country to the gigantic effort which they must soon be 
called upon to make. Chambers' Journal, Information for the 
People, and Historical Newspaper, with their immense circula- 
tion, are pillars of the cause. In short, the reading public are 
busy with the subject ; it meets them wherever they turn ; it 
concludes every official report of inquirers into the state of the 
manual-labour classes, in all their relations and conditions, as 
the panacea, the sine qua non, of their permanent improvement; 
while the want is felt by all whose duties or avocations bring 
tfiem into contact with the manual-labour population. 

2. If pride be a legitimate motive for nations, our's ought to 
be piqued by the fact — I am inclined to call it the encouraging 
fact — that we are outstripped in the educational race by other 
countries. In the United States, Boston is a-head of us in 
achievement, and decidedly in intention. Germany is eur 
teacher, not merely in the matured national plan of Prussia, so 
often referred to, but very generally over the empire. I have 
seen, for example, and wish I had space to detail, an account of 
the valuable education given at Hesse Cassel, and Gottingen. It 
Ls after the Pestalozzian method of reality, and, besides all the 
usual andinstrumentary branches admirably taught, includes use- 
ful knowledge, practical scientific study, manual labour, and 
bodily exercise ; while Latin is taught to those only who desire 
it. A youth educated in this manner presents an instructive 
contrast to any thing our ordinary schools can boast of; and the 
pupils be it marked, leave the school at fifteen, and often at 
fourteen. France has sent a special educational mission to 
Prussia, and is proceeding rapidly in the establishment of a 
similar system. The grant of last year for national education, 
was £600,000 ! The British legislature, in the same year, voted 
£20,000, without any very obviously usf-ful application, in the 
present diversity of deficiency which characterizes education all 
over the country; but every friend to the great cause rejoices 
that a grant has been made at all; it is real evidence of the 
animus of the government, and will operate as a test of the 
feelings of the public. I am not aware that a voice has been 
raised against it, either in or out of Parliament. 

15 



I/O WISHES OF GOVERNMENT AND LEGISLATURE. 

3. The encoura gement by the govern merit of the object of na- 
tional education, has manifested itself in other ways besides the 
grant just alluded to. Information is sought for officially of the 
state of education throughout the country. A Home-office cir- 
cular has lately been issued to teachers all over the empire, order- 
ing returns of the numberof pupils, their religious persuasions, 
education communicated, salaries of teachers, &c. The Lord 
Chancellor has likewise addressed extensively the trustees of pub- 
lic charities, inquiring 1 if they'are inclined to concur in a consolida- 
tion of their funds for the purposes of national education. The 
subject has been often incidentally discussed in both Houses of 
Parliament, with scarcely an unfriendly voice to the project of 
popular education as a national object; and on one day last session, 
the subject was Brought boldly before the House of Commons, 
by the member for Bath, who moved resolutions, that the House 
should pledge itself to an early consideration of the great mea- 
sure of popular education ; and particularized the necessity of 
an infant school, and school of industry, in every parish. The 
resolutions were negatived solely on the ground of their involving 
a pledge, which was thought premature ; but the discussion eli- 
cited the feeling of the House, and it was decidedly favourable to 
popular education. Since that discussion, the Lord Chancellor, 
long the most zealous, and now the most, powerful, champion of 
national education, in his late speech at York, may be said to 
have declared to the country, from authority, "the readiness of 
the Government and the Legislature to extend the blessing of 
education, as soon as the people are prepared in earnest to ask 
for it. His own exertions have been truly herculean. His me- 
morable speech, in the House of Commons, on the 8th of March, 
1818, is an epoch in the history of the cause. The Education 
Committee of 1818 was of his suggestion, and he himself was 
the most enlighiened and efficient member of it. What has 
been called its Digest of information on the state of the county, 
and its wants in the matter of education, is a statistical docu~ 
ment of great value ; and the " Practical Observations" which 
he published, have done much to remove prejudices and igno- 
rances on the subject. It is now sixteen years since these dis- 
cussions, and since Mr. Brougham's famous Education bill; yet 
popular education, as the Lord Chancellor observed at York, has 
not much advanced. It is earnestly hoped, that he himself is 
disposed to think that a much bolder and higher act of legisla- 
tion is absolutely necessary, than he at first contemplated ; that 
the new political. position of the people, then undreamed of, de- 
mands it; and that the public mind, greatly advanced beyond 
what he had to struggle with in 1818, is much better prepared 
or its realization. 
4. The meeting of teachers, held on the 15th March current, 



IMPROVEMENTS IN ENGLAND. 171 

^Dumfries, is well worthy of notice, as a sign of the times. 
Tlieir resolutions on the necessity of great improvement in the 
modes of education all over the country, in imitation of Germa- 
ny, Prussia, France, and America, their unqualified condemna- 
tion of the engrossing and useless study of Latin and Greek, — 
their concurrence in the enlightened views of Mr. Combe, — - 
and their formation of themselves into an association,* have 
been hailed by all the friends of national education, to whose 
knowledge they have come, as highly honourable to all con- 
cerned. 

5. The last, and not the least, encouragement consists in the 
actual improvement made and making in the substance of edu- 
cation itself, in the British dominions. In the possession of In- 
fant schools, alone, we have an advantage fully equalling all that 
is enjoyed by the countries alluded to as] before us in other re- 
spects, but which have not yet adopted these, the only means of 
efficient moral training. There are, in England, schools of real 
knowledge, in which almost every thing is taught recommended 
in Chapter V. of this treatise. There are Dr. Mayo's school at 
Cheam in Surry, and the establishments of the Messrs. Hill at 
Hazelwood, near Birmingham, and Bruce Castie at Tottenham, 
near London; and it is well known, that these schools serve as 
models to others, and that the system of imparting real useful 
knowledge to the young is extending. In Mr. Bruce's acade- 
my, in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, in addition to the usual branches, 
which need not be enumerated, the following philosophical 
courses are taught : — " Chymistry, electrittity, magnetism, and 
pneumatics, as connected with physical geography, meteorology, 
&c. ; natural history, with reference especially to the mechan- 
ism and physiology of the human frame — making Paley's Na- 
tural Theology the text book, — mental philosophy, the evidences 
of Christianity," &c. There is a seminary in Bath, under the 
direction of Messrs. Clark, which bears a close resemblance to 
that of Mr. Bruce. The Belfast Academy, under Principal 
Bryce, has been for several years far in advance of every 
seminary of which I have heard' in Ireland, and equal to any one 
in this country. Dr. Drummond is Professor of Anatomy and 
Physiology in the Royal Institution of that town, and has great- 
ly contributed to its repute, especially as a naturalist. In 1828, 
mineralogy and geology were added to the usual course of geo- 
grapriy. Into the study of these subjects, the pupils, from 
eight to eighteen years of age, all entered with the greatest 
alacrity : insomuch that some apprehension was at first enter- 
tained of these fascinating pursuits leading them away from 
their regular studies. But instead of this being the case, there 
was speedily a marked improvement in the manner in which the 

* The Dumfries and Galloway Education Society. 



312 IMPROVEMENTS IN IRELAND — SCOTLAND 

other duties were performed, by those who had given themselves 
most passionately to mineralogy and geology. The National 
education of Ireland has been already alluded to, and its school- 
books ; which, fortunately before finishing this essay, I have- 
seen. They are nine small volumes, from the price of twopence 
for thirty-six pages, to sixpence for 150, and one shilling for 
360. neatly boarded and covered with linen. The books for 
teaching to read are called the first and second books of lessons. 
There is a small volume on arithmetic, and another on book- 
keeping. The volume on the elements of geometry is a trans- 
lation from the French of the -first-part of Clairaut's Geometry, 
which applies the geometrical propositions to useful purposes as 
they follow each other ; this is a very sensible manner of mathe- 
matical inculcation for the benefit of the manual-labour student. 
The third book of lessons is Pestalozzian and has objects for its 
matter ; but certainly not so systematically as Dr. Mayo's, which 
it would have been much better to have adopted. The fourth 
book of lessons has a great Variety of contents, viz. Natural 
History, Geography, Religious and Moral lessons, Political Econo- 
my and useful Arts, Poetry, &c, with a useful appendix of pre- 
fixes, affixes, and Latin and Greek roots. The other two vol- 
umes contain the Scripture lessons, the one from the Old and the 
other from the New Testament. Although they are abstracts. of 
or exercises on Scripture, not Scripture itself, they are nearly 
given in Scripture language, and when not, the passage is put: 
within brackets. They are excellent specimens of what every 
parent tries to do, and to teach the child to do, namely, to teir 
Scripture stories, and apply Scripture precepts, in their own 
way, in order to induce them to read them in the Bible. The 
outcry against them, where honest, is utterly unreflecting. It 
is presumed, that the series of manuals is not yet finished, 
as there is none upon .chymistry, or mechanical science. As 
manuals, the Irish books are well composed and selected f but 
they are detached and separate, and do not belong to a system. 
They may, like many other equally good school-books, furnish 
hints to the framers of a comprehensive and systematic Code of 
education, but they will by no means supersede it. > Above ali^ 
the National system of Ireland makes no provision for Infant 
education. 

In Scotland, we have had for a number of years Mr. Wood's 
school in Edinburgh, in every way excellent, except in omitting 
practice on realities, and scientific exercises ; the Circus Place 
School, which was established upon , the real system, though it 
is rather thought, not have very rigidly adhered 'to it ; and much 
of the best of j both, in the Davy-street Lancasterian School, 
taught by Mr. Dunn. Mr. Cunningham's Edinburgh Institution 
has already been mentioned, and a letter from him is published in 
the appendix. The allusion to him suggests the system of Mr. 



DIFFERENT RANKS EDUCATED TOGETHER. 173 

James Black,* for teaching a language simultaneously to any 
number that can hear his voice, or see his illustrations, — the 
whole pupils repeating the words after him for the sake of pro- 
nunciation. The author has witnessed this mode of teaching, 
and has had occasion to see proofs of its success, both in Latin 
and French. Mr. Black has been for two years settled in Glas- 
gow ; and, under the sanction of the Principal and the Senatus 
Academicus of the University, has lectured in the Humanity 
Class-room to crowded and approving audiences. His system is 
well worthy of consideration in any plan of abridging the time 
devoted to the acquisition of languages. 

These various improvements, in the substance of education, in 
actual existence and operation within the three kingdoms, are 
enumerated among the encouragements to the friends of a Na- 
tional plan, inasmuch as they furnish the materials, already tried 
and proved, which, with a little arrangement, may be combined 
into a complete system of popular education, on sound practical 
principles. 1 use the term popular, as including the entire peo- 
ple. The parish schools, as they then would be, will bring the 
choicest education, for children from two to fourteen years of 
age, to the doors of all the rural inhabitants ; and assemble chil- 
dren of all ranks in the same school-hall, as they now meet in 
the same church. The well trained child of the peasant will 
bring no contamination to the child of the squire ; on the con- 
trary, their early association in the interesting occupation of 
moral and intellectual improvement, will at once afford the means, 
so much desired, of softening down that harsh ridge, which at 
present separates the manual-labour class from those above them, 
with all the jealousy of caste, and all its hatred, hostility, and 
danger; and of laying a foundation for that respect and kindly 
feeling towards our externally less favoured fellow-men, which, 
in the certainty of a return from them of good will to us, would 
change into moral sunshine on the universal face of society, that 
scowling " winter of our discontent," which, in the nature of the 
moral world, is the effect of the reign of the selfish faculties. 
In large towns, the indiscriminate mixture of all ranks'in the 
National schools might at first sight be a subject of hesitation ; 
but it is just in great towns where it will be less called for, till it. 
can be safely trusted ; as the means of separate education will 
there be more easily procured. But those who in towns have 
recourse' to schools of their own, will do well to model them on 
the National school plan. 

The repugnance to endure contact with the lower classes, 
even in the pure and elevated exercises of intellectual and moral 
pursuits, it is perhaps scarcely fair to lay to the account, in all, 

* Late English Preceptor to the Due de Bordeaux. 
15* 



174 MORAL REFORM OF SOCIETY. 

of the inferior feeling of pride, exclusively/ In some, no doubt, 
there is a constitutional haughtiness, vain-glory, and selfishness, 
which reap self-consequence from the very contemplation of a 
large mass of social inferiority. To their predominating inferior 
faculties it would be positive pain to witness an upward move- 
ment from that low level which they feel to be necessary to con- 
trast with and give full effect to their gehtility. Nay, even in 
more generous minds, there is a sort of fixed custom of separa- 
tion, a habit of feeling as if the line of demarcation were of na- 
ture's own drawing, but a feeling originating in the unconcealed 
haughtiness of barbarism, and disowned by utterly unheeded 
Christianity, which has become the maniere d'etre of a greatly 
more advanced society. This is too strong for even more gene- 
rous sentiments which would ivish to see the line removed, by 
the insensible operation of a self-elevating progression in the 
humbler classes. While the actual inferiority, physical, intel- 
lectual, and moral, of these classes, in all that renders human in- 
tercourse desirable, has resulted from the " abandonment" to 
which they have been "left ;" yet the very existence of that 
grossness, from which refinement shrinks, is a formidable ob- 
struction to that contact, which, to a considerable extent, must 
be the first step of a process of popular improvement, and which, 
as that improvement advances, must and will extend. We have 
more antigothic lessons to learn than many are aware of, before 
the causes will disappear which entail upon society so much suf- 
fering and so much insecurity. 

A moral reform, of a nature and magnitude which will reduce 
our political to an insignificant item in the account of inevitable 
human progress, is no longer optional to us. It is vain to at- 
tempt to banish from our thoughts the unwelcome necessity, the 
severe trial to our selfishness, of condescending to be just, be- 
nevolent, and Christian ; it is ignorant barbarism to scorn and 
ridicule " the Utopian fancy. " If, on a sound interpretation of 
the Creator's design, as manifested in his works, and confirmed 
in his Word, it must be admitted that there is much of what is 
called " false position" in society ; in other words, that the pro- 
pensities or law in the members, almost to the exclusion of the 
sentiments or law in the mind, regulate or rather derange the 
social system ; — if money-getting and sensual enjoyment shall 
continue to be the business of life ; — and, as the cost of these, the 
bodies, minds and souls of seven-eighths of our countrymen, shall 
remain unheeded by us ; — if we shall hug to our bosoms our in- 
vidious distinctions, and our accumulations often far exceeding 
all reasonable superfluity ; while a moderate relaxation of our 
grasp would ease the strained sinews of the social frame, to their 
remotest vibration, and allow to ourselves a disengaged hand to 
aid, and to our relieved fellow men the time and the capability 



&&& 



LEGITIMATE SOCIAL DESTRUCTION. 175 

to receive, the intellectual, moral, and religious blessings, for a 
participation in which, faculties were given them by an Allwise 
God, — then let us not complain that our heavy social evils are 
not removed, and that we live in constant insecurity, dissatisfac- 
tion, and alarm. It is exploded drivelling to call this a levelling 
of all distinctions. No distinction of God's appointment, none 
that ought to exist in Well constituted society, none on which 
Christianity does not frown, will or can he levelled. Worth and 
talent, and even wealth duly regulated, will ever continue to dis- 
tinguish their possessors; and these will suffer no diminution, no 
degradation, by the elevation of a once neglected suffering mass 
to a higher level of temporal enjoyment, and eternal hope, than 
they actually occupy. The mountain will tower above the sea, 
as it towered primevally, although the valley below, once a noi- 
some swamp, be elevated, purinedj and enriched, by the alluvial 
stream ; and human distinctions, of God's and not man's, creating, 
will point upwards to their native heaven"not less that the social 
region, which they at once adorn and bless, has risen around 
them in all the elevation, and all the sunshine, and all the ver- 
dure of prosperity, of virtue, and of peace. 



APPENDIX. 



No. I. 

HINTS ON THE NECESSITY OF A CHANGE OF PRINCIPLE IN OUR 
LEGISLATION, FOR, THE EFFICIENT PROTECTION OF SOCIETV 
FROM CRIME.* 



On the 26th of February last (1833,) Mr. Hume presented a peti- 
tion from nearly 6000 persons in the Metropolis to the House of Com- 
mons for a revision of our criminal laws ; which he concurred with 
the petitioners in considering unenlightened, cruel, and self-defeat- 
ing, Mr. Pease vindicated his title to represent the benevolent so- 
ciety to which he belongs, by cordially supporting the petition. The 
Solicitor-General declared himself friendly to the mitigation of our 
criminal code, and could sanction the taking of life in those crimes 
only, where the individual injured would be enticed, preventively, to 
kill the criminal. Mr. Lennard thought that no crime should be pu- 
nished with death which was committed against property, without 
violence. Mr. G. Lamb said, that a gentleman had gone to the 
United States of America to investigate the secondary punishments 
of that country, and trusted that an improved system of secondary 
punishment would soon be adopted in our own. The Attorney- 
General would yield to no man in the wish that punishment should 
be as lenient as is consistent with the safety of person and property ; 
and was of opinion that farther mitigation might be safely, if cau- 
tiously, introduced. In this conversation, every speaker proposed 
mitigation, which was welcomed with loud and general cheering. 

This then, is the moment for the friends, at once, of mercy and 
efficient protection, to throw any lights they may have into the com- 
mon stock of illumination which this vital but difficult legislation 
requires. 

There are some departments of human affairs, in which know- 
ledge seems doomed to hold an inverse ratio to discussion. Book, 
and tracts, and treatises, and leading paragraphs, and parliamentary 
reports, all without number, come forth Upon the intractable subjects ; 
which, because they advance not, come to be characterised by the 

* This paper appeared in the Edinburgh Law Journal, No. VIII. Tho Author 
has been permitted by the proprietors of that work to republish it with some 
additions. 



178 EFFICIENT PROTECTION FROM CRIME. 

epithet " eternal." An example of one of these is Education, and of 
another Criminal Legislation. When this can be truly said, we may 
rest assured that there is an element wanting in the investigations, 
without which sound conclusions cannot be arrived at : and that is, 
a true philosophy of man and his relations to the creation in which he 
is placed. We have the evidence of notoriety and Professor Dugald 
Stewart, that this is yet a desideratum in moral science.* Nothing 
is more generally admitted and deplored, than that the whole legisla- 
tion for crime, sanative and protective, has hitherto been naught. All 
the' medicines have been inert and inoperative. That natural but 
unenlightened resort of the resentment which is roused by the bold 
selfishness and mercilessness of crime — the active remedy of pain in- 
flicted has failed : terror has been long exhibited, and its ingredients 
strengthened in vain : for the most aggravated forms of that moral 
disease, a disposition to crime, are just those which most certainly 
resist its operation. 

Our Criminal Courts, sit for a number of successive, laborious 
days, and clear their calendar by allotting to each delinquent a por- 
tion of suffering, by which the blind feeling of retribution is satisfied ; 
and one would think a most conclusive reason shown to all whom it 
may concern, that it is a very hazardous thing to commit crimes. 
Nevertheless, in two months there is a fresh jail-delivery, with some 
ton or twenty cases more than the foity or fifty just punished ;t and, 
in spite of all the appliances to prevent and deter from crime, tire 
year's account balances at least as it did the year before, and often 
still more unfavourably. It appears very extraordinary — to the re- 
flecting and the virtuous — that human beings should see before them 
disgrace, confinement, the tread-wheel, the scourge, the hulks, the 
antipodes, the gibbet, and practically feel these to be motives to ab^ 
stain from crime, of inferior force to their own impulses to commit it. 
But so it actually is. These visitations, falling as they do every hour 
upon the devoted heads of human beings^ produce no effect on others 
who have the same tendencies to crime ; yet the machinery is main- 
tained at an enormous cost, and, while humanity is afflicted by the un- 
ceasing spectacle of fruitless affliction, society remains permanently 
exposed to depredation and violence. Such a system is analogous 
to what surgical practice would be, were it always cutting, and am- 
putating and torturing, without curing, and in the knowledge, too, 
that those means do not, and will not, cure. The practical con- 
clusion from what has justj^ecn said is obvious, — -because the failure 

* Th? Professor quotes aid concurs in the opinion of M. De Bonald, who says, 
" Diversity of doctrine has increased, from age to age, with the number of masters 
and the progress of knowledge ; and Europe, which at present possesses libraries 
filled with philosophical works, and which reckons up f.l.nostas many philosophers 
as writers, poor in the midst of so much riches, and uncertain with the aid of all its 
guides, which road it should follow, Europe, the centre and focus of all the 

LIGHTS IN THE WORLD, HAS YET ITS PHILOSOPHY ONLY IN EXPECTATION." 

t This was the very recent experience of both Edinburgh and Glasgow; and 
that valuable document, the Eighth Report of the London Prison Discipline So- 
ciety, denionstra tes that the same increase of crime is uniform all over the United 
Kingdom. By the Report of the recent Select Committee of the House of Com- 
mons, it appears, that crimes have increased as 24 to 10, that is more than doubled, 
in the last fourteen years. 



EFFICIENT PROTECTION FROM CRIME. 179 

is total, because the disease is unabated, the whole treatment 

IS IN PRINCIPLE ERRONEOUS, AND MUST BE RADICALLY ALTERED. 

Legislation, in all matters physical, seeks to be guided by the best 
scientific lights accessible. A committee on a railroad", a tunnel, or 
a canal, summons persons, and these the best mechanical philoso- 
phers, practical mechanicians, and engineers the country can pro- 
duce, and proceeds under the guidance of their science and experi- 
ence. We have not, however, heard of an examination of philoso- 
phers of mind and man, in a measure which is to have the most im- 
portant social effects. We have seen no professor of moral philoso- 
phy before a committee, throwing upon the measure the light of his 
lucubrations on the nature of the human mind, aid its springs of ac- 
tion. Nor should we wonder at this, when Europe has the arrival of 
its philosophy of mind only in expectation, — too lat-3 for the sittings 
"up stairs," and out of all time for the report. Legislation on moral 
affairs is, therefore, necessarily unguided by principle It is held to be 
practical, and to be impeded by theories ; it, comes hot and confident 
from individual impressions, feelings, and instincts, — from the set of 
notions, however taken up, which serves each individual as a system 
of principles, " and which," says an eminent v. liter, il although he 
" may not have methodised them, or even acknowledged them to 
" himself as a theory, yet constitute to him a standard by which he 
practically judges of all questions of morals, politics, and religion, 
and dogmatizes with alHhe pertinacity of the most obstinate theorist 
" on earth." By such men severity alone is dreamed of as the medi- 
cine for criminals, — and if it fails, then greater severity, till what is 
called the vengeance of the law is solaced, and terror believed trium- 
phant.* The utter blindness of this course of legislation, a little at- 
tention — which is rarely or never bestowed — to the nature of the 
material it works upon, as well as the engine it woiks with, Mill 
sufficiently expose. 

The material to be worked upon is the will of man.j In relation 
to the impulses and tendencies of this will, minute and attentive ob- 
servation has shown, and the parables of the Talents and the Sow- 
er illustrates the observation, that human beings present three 
classes i First, th®se whose animal appetites or propensities are so 
powerful as to overbalance the restraining force of their moral and 
intellectual faculties, and, like thorns, choke any good seed sown in 
them. Beings of this constitution of mind are under the dominion of 
strong lusts, violent passions, and intense selfishness. Their im- 

* Measures are at this moment urged from several quarters, on Parliament, for 
the more severe punishment of juvenile .^Tenders ; wiih what chance of favour, 
the account given of the reception of die London petition for mitigation, will en- 
able the reader to-judge. 

t The marquis of Beccaria (on Crimes and Punishments), who wrote much in 
advance of bis own age, says, "Nd advantage in moral policy can be lasting which 
is not founded on the indelible sentiments of the heart of man. Whatever law 
deviates from that principle, will always meet with a resistance which will destroy 
it in the end." Much of the modern improvement of criminal legislation has been 
influenced by Beccaria's views. These are yet in advance of Europe, and even 
Britain. America is acting up to them more nearly. 

+ There are, of course, various degrees iu each class ; but the tripartite division 
will serve all practical purposes. 



180 EFFICIENT PROTECTION FROMCRIME. 

pressions of moral duty are so weak as to offer no restraint to the 
gratification of their selfishness, at any cost of property, limb, or life, 
to those, no matter how unoffending, who stand in their way ; while 
in most of them a limited intellect has obscure views of the real na- 
ture of things, confused perceptions of consequences, overweening 
confidence in their own power of concealment, evasion and escape, 
total blindness to the guilt of their actions, a fixed rejection in their 
own case of all idea of retribution, ---on the contrary, a persuasion 
that all restraint imposed on themselves is the unwarrantable act of 
the strongest ; and, finally, the feeblest powers of controlling their 
passions, even when they do see the fatal consequences of yielding to 
their svay. Any better endowment of intellect in this class is al- 
ways perverted to the purposes of crime ; hence expert plan-laying 
thieves, pickpockets, swindlers, and forgers. 

The second class of mankind are very numerous, those whose ani- 
malism is nearly as strong as n the first class, but whose moral and 
intellectual powers of restrak.e are so much greater, as to bring the 
tendencies to indulgence and forbearance almost to a balance. Ex- 
ternal circumstances in such persons turn the scale. In low life, un- 
educated, neglected, and destitute, they have often become criminal ; 
in a more favourable condition of education and society, they have 
continued respectable • but, within the influence of bad example. 
They will be found sensuiu and often profligate, and they are al- 
ways selfish and self-indulging. In them is the scriptural want of 
earth to preserve the plant, which springs up, from the withering ac- 
tion of the sun. 

The third class are the good ground, that produces in different de- 
grees, but all plentifully. They are those who, the Apostle says, are 
" a law unto themselves." In them the animal propensities are suffi- 
cient for their legitimate ends, but the decided predominance of intel- 
lect and moral feeling, as faculties of their mind, renders it nearly 
a moral impossibility, that the inferior tendencies should ever master 
them so far as to impel them to commit crime. It is physically possi- 
ble for such men to rob, or steal, or torture, or murder, hut it is mo- 
rally impossible ; and they would attempt any physical difficulty in 
preference. They enjoy strong moral and intellectual perceptions. 
Their passions, sometimes vigorous, are reined by their higher feel- 
ings 5 they feel the law writtenjn their heart with the- Same finger that 
graved it on tables of stone ; instead of all their aspirations and aims 
being selfish, they have time, and thought, and exertion, and money, 
to spare for their fellow creatures ; and are made happy by the ex- 
tension of the. virtuous enjoyment of life throughout the world. They 
cannot exist in a grovelling atmosphere, and tend upwards into a 
purer moral medium, when by circumstances depressed into vicious 
contact. These, lastly, are the men who are sincerely, conscien- 
tiously, rationally, and practically religious, and whose morality is 
based in the Divine will and the precepts of Christianity. It is mani - 
festly the Creator's design, that such men, from intellectual as well 
as moral power, shall rise to the guidance of society ; and liberty, 
and light, and national happiness, are in the direct ratio of their as- 
cendency. An enlightened and effective criminal code will ema- 
nate from them alone. 



EFFICIENT PROTECTION FROM CRIME. 181 

One grand error in criminal legislation has been, that the threefold 
distinction now drawn has never been taken into account as true in 
nature. There is no practical belief thai it exists. We do not find 
it adverted to in any of the thousand and one treatises already writ- 
ten, and by the most talented of men, on criminal legislation. Yet 
it may be predicted that, till it shall be acted upon as a practical 
truth, speculation after speculation, code after code, and institution 
after institution, for the protection of society from crime, will fall to 
the ground. The prevalent practical belief of the million, and of the 
law-makers in whom they confide, is, that in power to obey the laws 
there is among men no difference of mental constitution ; that a 
good man has willed to be virtuous, and a bad man has willed to be 
vicious, and that either might have willed equally easily the opposite 
character. That it was a mere voluntary choice that, on the one 
hand, filled the prisons with wretches whom a Howard visited, and 
that determined Howard, on the other, to visit them Hence the in- 
dignation and resentment felt against the criminal, and the tendency 
to visit upon him the retribution considered due to a deliberate choice 
of the wrong, in spite of a clear perception and feeling of the right. 
Now, the truth will challenge the strictest investigation, that the 
great majority of criminals in this country have minds so constituted, 
and that, independently of their own volition, as to rank them in the 
first class above described. They are born with a greatly preponde* 
rating animalism, which grows with their growth, and strengthens 
with their strength. Belonging to the lower, and often the lowest, 
ranks of life, having neither moral nor religious training and exer- 
cise, little or no intellectual education, no habit or practice of industry, 
frugality, sobriety, or self-denial ; strangers to all encouragement, 
from a higher moral society, to value character; on the contrary, 
familiar from infancy with the example of debauchery, profligacy, and 
recklessness, and crime in their very parents and relations, trained 
often to early mendicity, and always to thieving, habituated to hear 
debauchery and successful villany lauded in the society with which 
they mix, and morality and justice ridiculed or defied, they may be 
said to be indeed born in iniquity, and bred in crime. Such are the 
beings whose acts create resentment and retributive revenge in the 
minds of the unreflecting, the untempted, and in regard to a sound 
philosophy of man, the uninformed. Even the enlightened Arch- 
bishop Whately, in his lately published " Thoughts on Secondary 
Punishments," comments with severity upon what he calls " a false 
tenderness to delinquents," which is gaining ground. 1 am inclined 
to look upon this tenderness, which is abolishing severe punishments, 
as a proof of the soundness of the views now humbly proposed, and 
that a higher morality is speaking out, as matter of mere feeling, that 
punishments are as inefficacious as cruel. Yet punishment is the 
grand object of criminal legislation. The Archbishop is busy with 
substitute punishments for the " capital practice," now on the wane ; 
his work is on punishments, secondary though they be. His idea of 
punishment is exclusively as to its effect in the way of example. This, 
he says, is the avowed theory of punishment distinctly recognised in 
our legal enactments. " But," he adds, " in particular cases there 

16 



182 EFFICIENT PROTECTION FROM CRIME. 

are notions and practices inconsistent with a doctrine so evident 
which are by no means uncommon. Irrelevant considerations — irrele- 
vant, I mean, on the supposition, whose truth almost every one ad- 
mits, that man has no right to think of inflicting vengeance, — are 
perpetually allowed to influence our judgment.'' The criminal, he 
says, follows an example of crime, — substitute for this an example of 
terror. Legislators have unfortunately hitherto acted on this princi- 
ple ; instead of directing all their powers to the preventive training, 
and, if necessary, the restraint of the predisposed to crime, they have 
been misled by the belief that it is not only possible, but a matter of 
course, that punishment, rendered severe and certain, will operate on 
the criminally disposed as a motive of greater power than the impetu- 
ous impulse of his own passions, and secure his refraining from 
crime. 

Now, the melancholy truth is, that this conclusion with regard to 
the first class of human beings above distinguished, is utterly and 
demonstrably false ; and the monstrous error which has held, and 
still holds it to be sound, is the main cause of the failure of all exist- 
ing criminal codes, and of" the steady increase of crime with the in- 
crease of wealth and population." It is admitted that the lawmakers 
are right, when they hold that the fear of punishment has a power- 
ful operation, as a motive, on men whose moral balance is even, and 
trembles between offending and abstaining. We hear this often and 
much insisted upon, as a very important effect of the example of 
punishment ; and we recognize the men alluded to as the second class 
of human beings. But it will afterwards be shown that a much 
milder and more judicious treatment of real criminals, — men of the 
first class, — will furnish sufficient example to the second, or class of 
waverers. It is more important to establish the fact that, on the first 
class, or those whose preponderating tendency is to crime, — whose 
intellect is the barren way side, and whose moral constitution is a 
wilderness of thorns, — the example of punishment has little or no 
effect at all ; and this is one reason why crimes do not diminish either 
in number or aggravation. It is a fundamental error, which not 
only prevails in ordinary life, but is at the root of all the discrepancies 
and contrarieties of metaphysical systems, that every one conceives 
his own mind a type of the species, and believes that all other men 
feel, and think, and are moved just as he is. The lawmaker's mind 
being probably — at least it ought to be — of the third class, he feels 
that public disgrace and punishment would operate as most effectual 
motives to deter him from crime, were he, by any possibility, in dan- 
ger of falling into it; and he never doubts that to all minds they must 
present the same effectual warning. But the minds of men of the 
first class are constituted quite differently. They are impelled by 
much stronger animal propensities — the abuses of which are essen- 
tially vice and crime, — and they have much weaker restraining 
powers,, moral and intellectual.* To men with such minds the state 
of society holds out constant temptations; the circle they move in 

* The atthor has been assured by an intelligent gentleman who has repeatedly 
sailed to K\>w South Wales in charge of convicts, that, with few exceptions, they 
have narrv% intellects. 



EFFICIENT PROTECTION FROM CRIME. 183 

laughs at threats and punishments ; their intellects are confused, as 
well as their passions aggravated, by the constant use in most of them 
of intoxicating liquors; they see no consequences till they fall upon 
them, have no anticipations of punishment, and never doubt their 
own unvarying good fortune, and powers of evasion and concealment. 
With all this, should we wonder that they so seldom connect the idea 
of punishment with their actions, and that they proceed in the course 
of their evil practices, without ever dreaming of applying the punish- 
ments of even their accomplices in crime as examples to themselves.* 
When the last sentence of the law overtakes them, clergymen who 
have attended them have declared, that one of the chief difficulties 
was to give them the idea of guilt, or bring them to connect the 
punishment they were about to suffer with their crime. The late 
Dr. Andrew Thomson gave this account of the state of mind of 
Mary M'Innes, the keeper of a house of ill fame in Edinburgh, who, 
in a fit of fury, murdered a young man in her house. Dr. Thomson 
found her incapable of connecting her crime with her punishment. 
She looked upon the latter as merely a violent death before her time, 
and a great calamity, but never as a retribution. Hence we may 
conceive her utter incapacity to anticipate punishment as the result of 
any act of her's when it was neither near nor dreaded. Criminals 
under sentence of death sometimes write their own histories, and 
those who do, generally become autobiographers from the vanity of 
displaying their skill and power as criminals. This was remarkably 
exemplified in the case of David Haggart, executed for murder at 
Edinburgh some years ago. The incapacity to see clearly the guilt 
of an action, necessarily precludes that anticipation of punishment 
which is essential to the operation of example. Dr. Adam Smith, in 
his " Theory of Moral Sentiments," states it as matter of daily ob- 
servation, that it is of the very nature of a weak conscience to furnish 
feeble perceptions of guilt, and no remorse for crime. Remorse is 
the reaction of the moral faculties, which in criminals act too feebly to 
produce that feeling. 

Now, minds so constituted ought not to be judged of in the same 
manner as those of a more moral and intellectual constitution. — 
Justice demands a large allowance for their unfortunate constitution, 
and not less unhappy circumstances ; and, above all, observing that 
punishment, however severe, does not operate upon them as exam- 
ple, it would consider whether there are not means, at once more 
just and more effectual, of protecting society from the acts of these 
its dangerous and reckless members. 

Let us first look at the present treatment of a criminal. Suppose 
him young ; nothing is done for him by the country he lives in, and 
its first notice of him is to punish him. His offence is perhaps slight, 
and by what the Archbishop of Dublin well considers a gross error, 
arising from the practice, although disavowed in principle, that a 
criminal is punished in proportion to his moral guilt alone, he is sent 
for a short time to a house of correction. He is set to hard and de- 
grading work, receives stinted food, experiences from the keepers 

* The Rev. Mr. Roberts of Bristol states that he conversed with 167 convicts 
under sentence of death, and found that 164 of them had witnessed executions, 



184 EFFICIENT PROTECTION FROM CRIME. 

nothing but hard words, commands, threats, and, in some places, 
stripes, as his communication with them ; while he is subjected t© 
the contaminating fellowship of other criminals, at work, at meals, 
and sometimes even in his sleeping cell, " He was sent to be pu- 
nished," is the answer to the question, " Was any thing done to reform 
him, to instruct him, or to reconcile him to honest society?" He 
was sent for a short period, hecause it was "his first offence,," and 
there was, of course, no time to operate morally upon him ; he, 
therefore, leaves the house of correction as bad as he entered it, at 
least, and, if he has associated with older criminals, worse. A short 
confinement renders his return to the house, unless he quits the 
place, next to certain. In a statement made by the Governor of 
Bridewell in Glasgow, there is a table showing the per-centage of 
offenders that returned for new offences, and it is in a diminishing 
series, as it is related to confinement for one month gradually up to 
two years. The greatest proportion returned who had had one 
month's confinement, and none were seen again who had suffered 
confinement for two years. 

On his second sentence, our supposed offender' is doomed to a 
longer confinement, and is again set on the tread-wheel, where he 
works in company, and in a state of most resentful irritation, because 
of the severity and degradation of the labour. His mutinies, have 
been visited by stripes. He leaves the house more hardened than 
ever, and more resolved to wreak his vengeance on society, and 
gratify^passions only whetted by his forced abstinence. But he has 
been punished a second time. After a third or fourth confinement, 
he is ripened for more daring acts than small thefts ; he takes a part 
in an extensive act of plunder, and is sentenced to transportation.— 
As an intermediate part of his punishment, he is sent to Woolwich 
to labour in the Hulks. If he was far gone in depravity before, it is 
notorious that the unavoidable free intercourse, both during labour 
and relaxation, which is permitted in that ill-judged mode of punish- 
ment, renders him much worse. In the farther course of his refor- 
mation, he proceeds " to make out his time" in New South Wales, 
where the spirit of crime has reached such perfection, that it has be- 
come a common saying that the most practised London criminal 
finds himself a learner in the accomplished community of Botany 
Bay. The only alternative at home, and which attaches to crimes 
which have more deeply affected property, or sacrificed limb or life, 
is death on the gibbet. 

Such is the provision made, in mockery, as it were by the criminal 
legislation of our own countiy, for the reformation of offenders. The 
utter inefficacy of the whole system of mere punishment, as example, 
to the class of our unfortunate countrymen who act fearlessly, reck- 
lessly, and unthinkingly, in obedience to their criminal predisposition, 
is too well known in fact; I trust it has been shown to be demon- 
strable on principle. 

It is not of this place to examine into the merits of the hulks, trans- 
portation, and execution, as punishments. We might assume them 
as all of the character of adequate suffering, and as quite satisfactory 
to the retributive principle of criminal legislation. I refer to Arch- 
bishop Whately's work an Secondary Punishments, for an expose© 



EFFICIENT PROTECTION FROM CRIME. 185 

of the two first mentioned secondary inflictions, in all their costliness, 
moral and political mischief, and utter inefficiency even as objects of 
terror. Criminals, according to a recent report of a Committee of 
the House of Commons already alluded to, have more than doubled 
in number in fourteen years, without any thing, as the report ob- 
serves, in the political or commercial state of the country to account 
for such a change. It is to be hoped from the evidence which has 
already been published, that the hulks and Botany Bay are already 
condemned. It is impossible they can survive the present investiga- 
tion. The hulks present a strange inconsistency ; they are meant to 
be severe, but their system is careless and- indulgent, and is neither 
punishment nor reformation. They are a bounty on crime. There 
is nothing severe in the labour, or such as deserves the name of pu- 
nishment. It is less severe than that of all voluntary day labourers. 
Mr. Stephens, in his work on Negro Slavery, estimates the convict's 
labour in the hulks at one-half of that of the Negro slave, and his 
food at double, both in quantity and nutriment. The convict is well 
clothed and fed, and enjoys what some of the convicts themselves, 
when examined, termed "a pretty jolly life;" and which the superin- 
tendents declared was the envy of the free labourers in the dock- 
yard, who work longer hours, and at harder work, for a less sub- 
stantial remuneration. At the same time, the free intercourse of the 
convicts renders the hulks a perfect sink of moral contamination. — 
The Archbishop objects to the hulks as too slight a punishment ; I 
object to them because they are irrationally mild, and utterly absurd 
in regard to either example or reformation. 

The transported felon has a four or five months' passage of perfect 
idleness and profligate conversation, in the freest intercourse with 
generally above 200 fellow criminals ; the effects of this, in eradicat- 
ing any possible remnant of good feeling from his mind, need not be 
dwelt upon. When landed, the worst that befalls him is a mild do- 
mestic slavery, by being appointed a labouring servant to some set- 
tler, with many ways, by tickets of leave as they are called, and pro- 
per management, of shortening and much lightening his bondage. 
He writes to his friends at home " to use some means to get sent out," 
to join him in his life of ease and plenty. 

Convicts are almost never reformed under the present system. I 
humbly think the reason is manifest. We should as soon expect 
corn to grow and ripen without culture, and without the positive ope- 
ration of the sun, air, and rain. " Whatever is the cause," says Mr. 
Wakefield, on the Punishment of Death, " the fact is certain, that a 
thief is hardly ever — I am tempted to say never — reformed." 

Mr. Chesterton, the Governor of Coldbathfield's prison, in his evi- 
dence before the Committee (513-517), goes farther, and expresses 
his conviction that the London thieves are irreclaimable from their 
vicious habits, and that no punishment which can be devised will deter 
them from the commission of crime. The London thieves can have 
no natural specific difference from other thieves ; and the irreclaima- 
bility amounts to this, that no adequate means have yet been used to 
reclaim either them or any other thieves. In the colony, the Arch- 
bishop says, even the convicts who have served their time, or been 
pardoned, and moreover acquired property, are unreclaimed. " In- 
toxication and frauds are habitual to them, and hardly six persons can 
16* 



186 EFFICIENT PROTECTION FROM CRIME. 

be named throughout the colony who, being educated men, have af- 
terwards become sober, moral, and industrious members of society.'* 

The Archbishop's observations upon the enormous political evil of 
deliberately planting '<a nation of criminals," are well worthy of 
being pondered deeply : and he takes all his proofs from Parliamen- 
tary evidence and documents. The felons tend to be, if they are not 
already, the nation. Its towns are filled with the most worthless and 
depraved men. Lord Bacon long ago remarked, that " it is a shame- 
ful and unblessed thing to take the scum of the people, and wicked 
and condemn e?l men, to be the people with whom you plant." The 
laws of hereditary descent, which perpetuate the character of the first 
settlers, are entirely lost sight of in such miserable legislation. The 
practical belief is, that the descendants of the felons may " be good" 
ifthey please. Experience, however, shows the notion to be as child- 
ish as its mode of expression. The state is well denominated by the 
Archbishop " a commonwealth of thieves." The executions in the 
year are one to 900, while in England and Wales they are one to 
280,000. Crime is constant and systematic ; the police of Sidney 
costs £20,000 per annum ; and what is not generally known to the 
British public, the original settlement is itself assuming the honours 
of a mother country, and planting volunteer colonies in the South Sea 
Islands, to which the convicts escape in small craft, and, in imitation 
of the Roman freebooters with their Sabine neighbours, offer a great 
bounty for kidnapped females from the mother colony, as that article 
is rare in their infant establishments. The staple is seal oil. 

Although what has now been said about our existing secondary 
punishments may, in some degree, be a digression, it subserves our 
main purpose, in exposing the lamentable blindness, inefficiency, and 
mischievousness, of our whole criminal economy ; 

In suggesting a better system, it is necessary to propose an entire 
change of plan. I beseech the reader in the outset to bear in mind, 
that the plan hitherto pursued, modified and remodified a hundred 
time3, has been attended with one uniform result only, and that has 
been failure. Let us now inquire what the change ought to be. 

First of all, then, 1 would humbly propose to dismiss retributive 
vengeance for ever from our legislation in crimes, and, what alone 
will secure this result, from our oion feelings, towards criminals. Diffi- 
cult, J acknowledge, will be this apparent inversion of our moral sen- 
timents ; but as I hold it to be only a just and, therefore, natural 
direction of them, I feel assured, and indeed have actually seen, that \t 
will soon recommend itselfto the reflecting. There is an approach 
to this in the reprobation with which we treat the element of revenge, 
when it betrays itself in keenness or violence, or vindictiveness, in a 
judge, in his directions to a jury in a criminal case, however aggravat- 
ed that case may be ; and we feel more respect for him when he treats 
the wretched prisoner, even when convicted, as unfortunate as well 
as criminal. Indeed good feeling has established this as the current 
term, both at the bar and on the bench, for characterizing the prison- 
er's condition. Now this is not merely civil, it is just. When we 
consider the original constitution and actual circumstances of crimi- 
nals, as already described, we cannot in justice avoid looking upon 
them as unfortunate, as patients more than criminals, and longing to 



EFFICIENT PROTECTION FROM CRIME. 187 

see them as patients put " under treatment." This treatment ought 
to have two great aims : first, to protect society from its dangerous 
members who are criminally diseased or disposed ; and, secondly, to 
amend the criminals themselves by an enlightened system of reforma- 
tion. I humbly think that both ends may be gained, with a much 
smaller degree of suffering than is called for on the retributive princi- 
ple, BY A JUDICIOUS SYSTEM OF REFORMATORY SECLUSION OF ALL CON- 
VICTED CRIMINALS, WHATEVER MAY HAVE BEEN THEIR CRIMES. 

I do not pretend to originality in the advocation of penitentiary 
treatment. I am anticipated by Bentham, the father of the system, by 
Archbishop Whately, and the legislators of the United States, in pro- 
posing its substitution for all secondary punishment, they reserving 
death for such crimes as murder and fire-raising. Bentham reserves 
capital punishment, though very unwillingly, for atrocious murder ; 
while the London Prison Discipline Society have the distinction of 
taking the lead in recommending the secondary treatment of the peni- 
tentiary for all crimes whatever, murder not excepted . But I do claim 
some views of penitentiary treatment itself, which more closely con- 
sult human nature than any which I have met with ; and, therefore, it 
is humbly hoped, free from errors in principle, which have occasioned 
the failure of the penitentiary system in various ways, when it pro- 
mised most fairly.* From some errors, it is thought with much defer- 
ence the Prison Discipline Society's plan itself is not free. With the 
solitary exception of that proposed by Mr. Livingston, Secretary of 
State at Washington, to be presently noticed, all the penitentiary 
plans have a machinery for the direct infliction, in lesser or greater 
degrees, of suffering, called punishment, continued through the whole 
course of the period of detention. They all include compulsory labour, 
which is labour enforced by yet severer pain as the consequence of re- 
fusal, in the form of stricter confinement, privation of food, and, as is 
true of the boasted Auburn of America itself, stripes with a cow-skin 
whip at the discretion of an under-keeper, and even flogging with a 
cat of cords under the eye of the governor. I hope to show that, with 
all or any of these penal courses, the convict's amendment is morally 
incompatible. 

The last Report of the Committee of the House of Commons on 
secondary punishments, "recommends that, in all cases that have 
hitherto been punished with imprisonment, with or without hard 
labour,! the prisoners be in future confined in light solitary cells, ex- 
cept when at hard labour; that in proceeding to or returning from 
exercise, they be marched in single files, and strict care taken to 
prevent even a whisper passing from one prisoner to another; that to 
prevent conversation while at exercise, the xoheel be divided into com- 
partments, with partitions, to contain one person in each, and that 
no more prisoners be taken .out for exercise at a time than may be 
sufficient to fill the wheel ; that no prisoner be allowed to receive 
visits from his friends, or to hold any communication with them even 

* Millbank itself has disappointed expectation. 

t The Committee propose to have a variety of secondary punishments, retaining, 
but improving, the unimproveable one of transportation. This variety is admira- 
bly exposed in all its self-defeating effects by the Archbishop. 



188 EFFICIENT PROTECTION FROM CRIME. 

by letter except in special cases, and with the permission of the visit' 
ing Magistrates ; that, when shut up in the cells, the strictest silence 
be enforced, and for that purpose a turnkey be constantly perambula- 
ting the galleries of the prison ; further, that every cell be furnished 
with books of a moral and religious character, and such employment 
provided for the prisoners when not at hard labour, as may tend to 
encourage habits of industry, and repay a portion of the expense in- 
curred in their maintenance." 

This plan is a copy of that of the prison of Auburn, in the state of 
IN ew- York ; only the labour in the latter is more intelligent and use- 
ful than the wretched, degrading, and absurd labour of the tread- 
wheel, which prevails in almost every House of Correction in En- 
gland. It is thought, with deference, that the views of the Committee 
of the House of Commons, although an immense advance upon those 
of our ancestors, are yet but partially guided by philosophical princi- 
ples : but every one must hail the spirit which actuates the Legisla- 
ture, and expect from it the very best results as their lights increase. 
In their Eighth Report, the Committee of the Prison Discipline 
Society say : — " The Committee have given to this subject (a sub- 
stitute for transportation and the hulks, which two last they consider 
as having utterly failed) their best consideration, and have no hesi- 
tation in declaring their conviction that an effectual substitute may 
be found for the penalty of death in a well regulated system of peni- 
tentiary discipline : a system which shall inspire dread, not by intensity 
of 'punishment , but by unremitted occupation, seclusion, and restraint. The 
enforcement of hard labour, strict silence, and a judicious plan of solitary 
confinement, will be found the most powerful of all moral instruments 
for the correction of the guilty ; and when to these are added the 
application of religious instruction, the utmost means are exercised 
which society can employ for the punishment and reformation of the 
human character. This discipline admits of a great variety of com- 
bination, and is therefore adapted to the treatment of offenders of 
different classes of criminality. For successful examples of this na- 
ture, the committee refer to some of our best houses of correction, 
and especially to the Penitentiary at Millbank. It is, however, from 
the United States that the most extensive experience on this subject 
is to be derived ; where a system has been adopted which combines 
solitary confinement at night, hard labour by day, the strict obser- 
vance of silence, and attention to moral and religious improvement. 
These plans are enforced with great success at the prisons of Auburn 
and Sing-Sing, in the state of New- York, and at Weathersfield, in 
the state of Connecticut. At sun-rise, the convicts proceed in regular 
order to the several work-shops, where they remain under vigilant 
superintendence until the hour of breakfast, when they repair to the 
common hall. When at their meals," the prisoners are seated at 
tables in single rows, with their backs towards the centre, so that 
there can be no interchange of signs. From one end of the work- 
rooms to the other, upwards of 500 convicts may be seen without a 
single individual being observed to turn his head towards a visiter.-^ 
JNot a. whisper is heard throughout the apartments. At the close of 
day labour is suspended, and the prisoners return in military order 
to their solitary cells ; there they have the opportunity of reading the 



EFFICIENT PROTECTION FROM CRIME. 189 

Scriptures, and of reflecting in silence on their past lives. The 
chaplain occasionally visits the cells, instructing the ignorant, and 
administering the reproofs and consolations of religion. The in- 
fluence of these visits is described to be most beneficial ; and the 
effect of the entire discipline is decidedly successful in the prevention 
of crime, both by the dread which the imprisonment inspires, as well 
as by the reformation of the offender. Inquiries have been instituted 
relative to the conduct of prisoners released from the Auburn peni- 
tentiary — the prison in which this system has been longest observed 
■ — and of 206 discharged, who have been watched over for the space 
of three years, 146 have been reclaimed and maintained reputable 
characters in society. 

Another system of penitentiary discipline practised in the United 
States is of a more formidable character, the severity of which has 
excited considerable opposition. It is enforced at Philadelphia and 
Pittsburg, in the state of Pennsylvania. The main feature by which 
it is distinguished from the government at Auburn consists in the 
enforcement of solitary confinement by day as well as by night. It 
was originally intended that this perpetual solitude should be inflict- 
ed at the Philadelphia prison without any relief arising from manual 
labour, but the Commissioners appointed to revise the penal laws of 
Pennsylvania were adverse to the experiment. This system has 
now been in operation for the last eighteen months, and it must be 
allowed that although the plan is in some respects objectionable, the 
serious apprehensions to which it has given rise have not been 
realized. Both these prisons were lately visited by a member of this 
society, who paid particular attention to the effect which continued 
solitude had produced upon the health of the prisoners, f I attempt- 
ed,' he writes, ' to detect any latent evils belonging to the system, 
and was for this purpose allowed to repair to the cells alone ; I did 
so frequently, and was at length satisfied that the prisoners had sus- 
tained no injury from the seclusion. Each prisoner is employed in 
some branch of trade, and is required to execute a given quantity of 
work ; if he disobeys, he is kept on low diet, no corporal punishment 
being allowed. There is, however, but little necessity for resorting 
to punishment ; for, rather than remain in idleness, the prisoners 
prefer employment for its own sake, as well as for the intercourse 
which it occasions with the prison officers. Labour is here prescribed 
as an alleviation of punishment, and not superadded to aggravate it.' 
Satisfactory as this may be to a certain extent, it is notwithstanding 
extremely difficult, at a distance so remote, and with conflicting evi- 
dence, to form a correct judgment upon the safety and expediency of 
continued solitude, even when mitigated by employment ; and after 
having maturely weighed the statements adduced by the advocates 
of the respective systems, the Committee adhere to the opinion ex- 
pressed in their former Report, that solitary confinement by day as 
well as by night, however suitable for short periods and as a tem- 
porary punishment for gaol-offences, would not be justifiable as an 
ordinary system of prison discipline. It appears that before the 
adoption of the present system at Auburn, an experiment was tried 
at that prison of the effect of perpetual solitude upon eighty prisoners, 
during a period of ten months, The result was decidedly unfavour- 



190 EFFICIENT PROTECTION FROM CRIME. 

able to the adoption of the plan, and it was accordingly abandoned. 
The punishment was found in many cases to injure the health, to 
impair the reason, to endanger life, to leave the prisoner enfeebled and 
unable to work on quitting confinement, and as ignorant of any useful 
occupation as when he entered it. Reformation did not follow, and 
consequently recommitments were more frequent. This testimony is 
corroborated by the opinions of the governors of several of the best 
regulated prisons in England, whom the Committee have consulted on 
this important subject. They unite in stating their conviction that soli- 
tary confinement is a punishment to be used with extreme caution ; 
that the health of every individual must be regularly watched ; that 
serious effects would have resulted from its adoption in their own 
experience, had they not been prevented by the timely removal of the 
prisoner into society, and that it would not be wise to render general 
a discipline, the administration of which requires unceasing vigilance, 
and the abuse of which may be so fatal to the mind as well as health 
of the prisoner. Much of the benefit ascribed to solitary confinement 
may be derived from allowing the prisoners to labour in classes 
agreeably to the course pursued at Auburn, but restricting them to 
the most rigid observance of silence. Great importance is justly at- 
tached in these penitentiaries to the effect of religious impressions in 
a state of solitude ; and, doubtless, the arrangements for imparting 
such have been carefully made." 

I have quoted largely from this report, because it contains a 
concise view of the American practice, in addition to what itself 
proposes. There is, however, an omission in the report, inasmuch 
as no allusion is made to the corporal punishment of Auburn, by 
which the discipline of the establishment, and also the convict's 
labour, are enforced. Mr. Stuart, a late traveller in the United 
States, when visiting Auburn, made minute inquiry into the whole 
system of the penitentiary, and states pointedly that, for infraction of 
duty, stripes are inflicted by the keeper, or assistant keeper, with a 
rawhide whip; and that in aggravated cases, the convict may be 
flogged by the keeper or deputy, with a cat of six strands of small twine 
applied to the naked back. He adds, that so certain is conviction 
and so speedy punishment, that an instance does not occur above 
once in three months. 

The Archbishop of Dublin, in his Letter to Earl Grey on Secondary 
Punishments, with its appendices, advocates severity in peniten- 
tiaries, for example's sake ; and the character of secondary punish- 
ment, on which he lays most stress, is that it shall be "formidable." 
He is unanswerable in his exposure of the absurdity and mischief of 
the prevailing secondary punishments; bat is by no means so trust- 
worthy a guide in his own plans of substitution. He is no doubt a 
convert to the universal application of penitentiary discipline as se- 
condary punishment; but his reprobation of "tenderness" to the 
convict, amounts almost to unwillingness that the feeling of punish- 
ment should ever quit the latter's consciousness, or that he should 
have a tale to tell to others in which there should mingle one grain of 
comfort or happiness. It is no answer to the Archbishop that, under 
such a system, reformation is not to be expected ; for he considers 
reformation, as we" shall presently see, a very secondary considera- 



EFFICIENT PROTECTION FROM CRIME. 191 

lion in the treatment of criminals. He, of course proposes compul- 
sory labour, and suggests an original and plausible modification of 
it, namely, that a convict's sentence should be measured, not by 
time, but by work, a certain extent or amount of labour (a fair 
portion being enforced daily) being assigned him, so that he may 
have a motive to assiduity in order to shorten his confinement, while 
the assiduity will give him habits of industry, which will avail him 
after his discharge. . I fear that such labour, however assiduously and 
speedily accomplished, being yet essentially penal and compulsory, 
and unaccompanied by any thing which bears the semblance, phi- 
losophically, of moral or intellectual exercise, of higher motives and 
more permanent social attainments, will be performed with a view 
to liberation only,— in other words, from a hatred of labour and an 
appetite for criminal indulgence, the only idea the convict is apt to 
connect with liberty. 

Mr. Secretary Livingston of Washington shoots a-head of the 
Archbishop of Dublin very decidedly, and arrives at a position much 
nearer that which is recognized by a sound philosophy of man. He 
has astounded his countrymen by ihe novel, but eminently philoso- 
phical, proposition of voluntary labour in penitentiaries, and the nega- 
tion of all direct and positive infliction of pain or suffering, at the hands 
of the superintendents. The scheme is as ingenious as it is benevo- 
lent ; I shall now describe it in as few words as possible. 

Mr. Livingston's penitentiary is so constructed that each convict 
has a cell, with an adjoining small court, to himself. The cell is 
small but light, and well aired and warmed : and here the newly in- 
troduced convict is shut up, coarse fare is supplied him, and he is 
rigidly denied all occupation whatever. This grievous state of nega- 
tion, in which the faculties stagnate whose activit}^ is essential to hu- 
man happiness, in a very short time becomes intolerable to him ; and 
as soon as he requests it, but not sooner, something to do is given 
him. There is work for him in the court adjoiningliis cell, though 
still in solitude. The kind of work is suited to his qualifications or 
previous habits. From the time he commences work, he finds a 
slight improvement in his diet, and a greater as he becomes more in- 
dustrious. If he is idle, or in any way abuses the privilege of labour, 
he forfeits his claim to it ; it is taken from him, and he returns to 
close confinement and coarse fare in his cell. In the trials already 
made — for the plan has been tried, in Louisiana— there is scarcely 
an instance of this retrogression ; or, if there have been any, the re- 
confinement is brief, as work and better fare are both soon again 
desired. When, by steady industry, for six or twelve months, which 
has been lightened by frequent visits from officers of the establish- 
ment and religious teachers, who instruct, converse with, and en- 
courage the solitary labourer, he is considered trust-worthy, a great 
improvement takes place in hi? condition. He is permitted to work 
and take his meals in the society of some others, in his own stage of 
improvement, the number not to exceed ten, who at night return to 
their solitary cells. When together, their intercourse and demeanour 
are of course narrowly watched, by a judicious person, who at the 
game time gives them" instruction, and even amusement ; while the 
least attempt at mutual corruption, the first symptom of abusing the 



192 EFFICIENT PROTECTION FROM CRIME. 

indulgence, is followed by its cessation, and the convict finds him" 
self back a stage, not yet in his solitary cell again, with coarse fare 
and without employment, but at the stage of solitary labour from 
which he has shown that he was not yet fit to be advanced. This 
inferior privilege he may, if he chooses, also lose, and retrograde to 
his first condition, as when he entered the establishment. From this 
he may emerge again whenever he pleases ; every step is his own 
taking. 

His promotion to the social state unabused has other advantages 
besides his improved diet,-*-which is better than the fare of his solita- 
ry labour, itself better than the fare of his idleness : he will be allow- 
ed, if he can, to work at more profitable employments, and receive 
his gain in the form of tools, books, or whatever he pleases, meat 
and drink, to prevent abuse, excepted : or have the surplus added to 
the stock which is laid up for his discharge. His hopes of ultimate 
liberty are encouraged, with judgment; but the impression is never 
allowed to be weakened that this final consummation depends upon 
himself alone, and that partiality, or favour, or allowance, or indul- 
gence, are all utterly out of the question. 

Here, then, is a system which abstains from enraging or debasing 
the convict by direct infliction of pain or suffering. He may punish 
himself if he pleases, by returning to solitude, and coarse fare; and 
he may promote himself to considerable comfort and enjoyment. — 
This last privilege is as important as new in penitentiary discipline ; 
and, attained, in the manner Mr. Livingston proposes, it seems that 
the greatest protester against rendering culprits comfortable can 
scarcely object to it. 

I would adopt Mr. Livingston's excellent plan, so far as it goes ; 
but I am inclined to build a little higher than his symmetrical struc- 
ture, or, shall I rather say, found a little deeper. , 

A penitentiary or reformatory asylum, according to my humble 
view of it, must, to be perfect fulfil five requisites: 

1st, It must protect society from the individual convict, by a me- 
chanical seclusion and detention of his person, so complete that the 
idea of escape may never occupy and distract his thoughts. 

2d, It must provide for the reformation of the convict, during his 
detention, to the utmost attainable extent, on sound practical princi- 
ples. 

3d, It must restore the convict to society when, but not till, he is 
so far reformed as to be trusted with his liberty. 

4th, Its detention and seclusion of the convict must be such as to 
operate in ihe way of example, to deter from crime all others upon 
whose will example will operate. 

5th, Lastly, It must fulfil all these requisites with little, or, if possi- 
ble, no expense to the public. 

Fint, I need not here enter into the first requisite, that of the mere 
mechanical means of effectual confinement. That is the responsi- 
bility of architects and engineers. Mr. Livingston's regime, which 
I would adopt, will of course require a great number of separate cells 
and attached solitary working courts. This is mechanically practi- 
cable. Auburn has one thousand cells in each wing. The accom- 
modations for Mr. Livingston's promotion are not less obvious. Provi- 



EFFICIENT PROTECTION FROM CRIME. 103 

sion should be made for a careful separation of males from females, 
and young from adults. The locality should be high, dry, and 
healthy, and the wate.- good. The principles of the system would 
direct the architect, and it is these principles we are at present con- 
cerned in establishing. 

Secondly, The convict's reformation. The Archbishop, as was 
formerly hinted, holds this consideration to be of secondary import- 
ance in penitentiary discipline. Example to others he holds the 
chief end of all punishment, which ought, therefore, according to him, 
to be formidable. Reformation may be attempted, but it does not, 
in his view, belong essentially to a "penal system." I think, with 
deference, that this is a great error. His system is unnecessarily 
penal, and therefore reformation cannot coexist with it. Formidable 
punishment and reformation cannot be united, and it shall presently 
be shown why; and also that the opinion of the impracticability of 
reforming criminals, — which has grown almost into a proverb, and 
seems much to influence Dr. Whately,— -is founded more on the fact 
of uniform failure, than on essential impracticability, if proper means 
were employed. The Archbishop says, that " all the efforts of rulers 
to make men good by law have utterly failed." But all the law 
hitherto applied has been to inflict pain upon men for being bad, un- 
accompanied with any rational attempt to make them good. The 
Archbishop argues that, by the reformation of criminals, you do not 
prevent crime in the rest of the community, inasmuch as criminals 
are not a specific, existing, separable class, like men with red hair or 
black skins, whose reformation would rid society of crime, by amend- 
ing all the criminals. The reformation of certain individuals would 
be no better than the cure of certain individuals during the prevalence 
of a pestilence: it would not arrest the course of a disease among 
the rest of the community. To this it is answered, that crime is not 
a contagious or epidemic pestilence, which tends to run through a 
whole people. Those decidedly predisposed to crime are much more 
of a class than Dr. Whately supposes ; and they are a class nearly 
all of whom, at least in the lower ranks, come in contact with the 
law. Even under the wretched system now prevalent, their number, 
on an average of years, can be nearly ascertained ; and it will appear 
in the sequel that a proper penitentiary system is nearly certain of 
getting them all into its hands, when reformation will not only be a 
moral duty, but a direct riddance to society of criminals and crime. 

It is, moreover, as a high moral duty that I have given Reformation 
so prominent a place among my five points or requisites ; I do not 
mean that of itself it is to do more than operate indirectly and par- 
tially as a diminution of crime ; but then it is not the sole appliance. 
As it is proposed to seclude criminals, and rid society of them for 
periods the shortest of which will be long, they have an irresistible 
claim upon us for education, intellectual and moral. To immure a 
criminal, and forget him— or to remember him only for the stated 
infliction of pain upon hin.>', is utterly abhorrent to all just notions of 
moral obligation. Immured as he is, he is yet a morally and religious- 
ly accountable being. We have separated him from the society with 
whose safety his liberty is incompatible ; but we are bound, the more 
17 



^™ 



194 EFFICIENT PROTECTION FROM CRIME', 

for that very reason, to attend to his intellectual, moral, and religious, 
as well as his physical wants. Just because we have forced him into* 
an artificial mode of life, established by ourselves for our own safetyy 
We are called upon to preserve his health of body, and to improve 1 
his mind, — intellectually, as far as he is capable, by useful knowledge 
and resource, and morally, by subduing and regulating his animal 
and vicious propensities, sensual, covetous, and violent, and exer- 
cising his moral faculties and social affections, some endowment of 
which, above the sad blank of idiocy, is the portion of every human 
being. We shall of course succeed in very different degrees, ac- 
cording as the balance stands between the superior and inferior 
feelings in each subject. The state of this balance will likewise re- 
g date the duration of the individual's seclusion from ordinary society. 
When, by an enlightened age, penitentiaries shall be held to be 
hospitals for moral patients, and not engines to protect society, by 
holding out the spectacle of the sufferings of perfectly free agents, 
either paying back that loss which their actions have occasioned,* or 
deterring others from crimes, by their example, the duration of the 
convict's detention will depend, not upon the mere act which brought 
him there, but upon the continuance of his disease. Ao long as 
penitentiary discipline shall consist of severe and degrading compul- 
sory labour, of stripes, irons, insults and brutality, without an attempt 
at improvement mental or moral, beyond being herded into a chapel 
on Sunday for an hour or two, — and this constituted the old idea of 
a house of correction, — a prescribed and short duration of such 
irrational usage is imperative. Nay, it was and is the prominent 
problem of criminal legislation to proportion punishments to crimes, 
— to weigh out, to an odd scruple, the quantum of suffering which 
shall counterpoise the quantum of guilt in the act committed : and 
certainly it would be monstrous to detain the convict, on such a 
principle, one moment longer in the place of mere suffering, than 
the exact time necessary to permit society to take out, in his groans, 
the supposed debt ex delicto contracted by him. But no one is ever 
sent to a hospital for a previously prescribed period. Sixty days of 
the infirmary, or the madhouse, as a medical prescription, would be 
justly ridiculed, in and out of the faculty ; and so it will come to be 
when moral infirmities, applying rational and effectual means of 
cure to those afflicted with that worst of diseases called a proclivity 
to crime, and being withal mild, benevolent, and encouraging to the 
patient, are substituted for the present irrational treatment. The un- 
happy criminal will then be regarded more in relation to his moral 
constitution than his conduct; or if the latter be estimated, it will be 
in the way of evidence of the former. His sentence for an overt act 
of crime will be restraint of the penitentiary, till an authority, be}'ond 
all question as to intelligence, and all suspicion as to uprightness and 
benevolence, shall deem it safe to venture him once more in society. 
It is evident that, for such a process, the shortest time must be long. 

* This is the etymology of retribution, and is the vulgar rationale of punish- 
ment. "Qui non luit in pecunia, luet in polle." Our law-makers and law-ad- 
ministrators disclaim this in the abstraet ; but it nevertheless enters largely into 
their practical judgments, as is well observed by Archbishop Whately. 



EFFICIENT PROTECTION FROM CRIME. 195 

•Ordinary education is the work of years ; and a fortiori must moral 
training be when working against the wind and tide and current of 
criminal propensity. Nay, as in lunatic asylums there may be eases 
ofyery long duration, there maybe cases for life in our asylum, eases 
of relapse after dismissal, and return to necessary restraint on fresh 
conviction. These last ought to be held cases for life. If any one 
shall object that this is any thing but mild treatment of criminals, 
and that there is more justice in inflicting a month's confinement for 
a first and slight offence, and then giving the criminal another chance 
for a good life ; I would answer, that the latter course is but the first 
step of a series of penal inflictions, alternating with intervals of the 
most wretched sensualities and profligacies cal'ed freedom, which 
necessarily brings the sufferer back to punishment — and that, on the 
proportion principle, more severe than the first — to be again dismiss- 
ed to greater misery than he leaves, and more resolved upon, and 
better fitted for, crime. He returns a third time, of course, to your 
bridewell, to be visited with yet increased infliction, till at last the 
account of proportion has so much accumulated to his debit, that a 
violent and ignominious death alone is held adequate expiation. — 
What is the restraint of a few — of a number of years — of a life- 
time — in a well constituted reformatory asylum, compared to the 
cruelty, the injustice, the irrationality of this ? 

In no part of his treatise is the Archbishop of Dublin more un- 
answerable than in his argument onyvhat are called first offences, or 
more properly first convictions. Like the Archbishop, I would 
never pass over first convictions ; but when he would administer to 
them severe but short pain, I would apply to them long but mild 
corrective education. If these views are sound, it would soon be 
with first offences almost exclusively that we should be called upon 
to deal. £n one view of first offences taken by Archbishop Whately 
I cannot agree, namely, that a first offence, even when slight, shall 
be visited by sharp and severe suffering, by way of example to others. 
This is as much against our moral perceptions as it would be to 
punish a slight offence retributively with severe suffering. If it be 
said that it is expedient to do so, then are expediency and morality at 
variance, which is absurd. We should have no right, on the princi- 
pls of either retribution or example, to go beyond a nice apportion- 
ment of the penalty to the act ; but when the object in view is the 
moral cure of the individual himself, there is no variance between 
moral feeling and expediency, even although that cure should require 
a long seclusion. We never think the longest confinement to a sick- 
bed unjust or disproportionate. This is an answer to the natural 
question under the old impressions, "Would you send a boy for 
■years to your penitentiary who for the first time steals a shilling?" 
The theft of the shilling is the symptom of a moral disease which re- 
quires the boy's being put under treatment, and it is mercy to him to 
seclude him, and subject him to the education and training which his 
unfortunate case rf quires. Five children, three boys and two girls, 
were tried at the Old Bailey, the other day, for a course of depreda- 
tions in London. The eldest was thirteen years of age. One boy 
and girl lived as husband and wife in lodgings, where they received 
the other young thieves, and the stolen goods. The husband, twelve 



196 ' EFFICIENT PROTECTION FROM CRIME. 

years of age, pleaded an alibi, and gravely said that he was smoking 
his pipe at home when the theft was committed. They were con- 
victed and sentenced to punishment after the old fashion. Now, 
what friend to humanity, and to these unhappy children themselves, 
would have objected to their seclusion a year or two earlier in a mild 
penitentiary, and to their dwelling there for years, rather than be sub- 
jected to the neglect, and therefore the unjust severity, they actually 
experience 1 

But wherein, it will be asked, does my asylum differ from the hi- 
therto most improved penitentiaries, to lead me to expect success, 
when all other'plans have presented a history of failure : and to entitle 
ine to hold that the confinement proposed shall, not only by its mild- 
ness, but its advantages to the convict, counterbalance the evil of its 
duration ; and yet to those beyond the walls on whom example ever 
operates, serve all the purposes of motive to abstain from crime ? 

In the substitution of restraint for pain positively inflicted, which 
last has been found to do nothing, in the way of example, with class 
first, it is proposed to banish direct infliction entirely ;- and to be con- 
tent with secluding the convict, and physically preventing him from 
doing farther mischief, while we subject him to the operation of a 
rational system of reformation. It is a remnant of the old leaven to 
devise ingenious methods of rendering a penitentiary as irksome and 
disagreeable as possible, that the convict may not be allowed to for- 
get that he is undergoing punishment. Novel though the thesis may 
appear, it is warranted by knowledge of the faculties of the human 
mind and their mode of operation, that it is morally impossible to pu- 
nish, by direct and severe infliction, and reform at one and the same 
time. The utmost punishment proposed, therefore, is seclusion and 
solitude. I would inflict no other directly, but, with Mr. Livingston, 
would provide the means of an underselling convict punishing him- 
self, by falling back into degradation, confinement, and poor fare, just 
as by idleness he would do in free society. In his loAvest state, while 
it lasts, I should not attempt reformation, because I should inevitably 
fail ; and this will at once appear if we consider what reformation 
really is. 

Reformation addresses itself to the moral and religious faculties, 
and to their activity the quiescence of the animal propensities is a 
necessary requisite. But directly inflicted punishment is addressed 
to these lower feelings • it is avowedly intended to excite fear, but it 
cannot be prevented from rousing resentment, and with that the moral 
feelings of justice, gratitude and kindness cannot co-operate. It is a 
solecism to attempt an interchange of kindliness when your subject's, 
back is smarting and bleeding from the lashes of your scourge, and 
he mortally hates, and could murder, his tormentar. You may quell 
his thirst for vengeance by the power of your position ; but his stripes 
must heal, and his resentment cool, before 3 7 ou will do more than waste 
your breath to talk to him of justice, or mercy, or industry, or self- 
respect, or pietyT He must have time to come round from the settled 
sullenness of the degrading tread- wheel, that brute labour, before he 
will be in the mood to respect either himself or the society that tor-^ 
ments him ; nor is it with the same breath that he can be insulted, 
vilifiedj abused, and tyrannically commanded, and also led, by tho 



EFFICIENT PROTECTION FROM CRIME. 19 f 

gentler accents of persuasion, to exchange a ruffian character, aggra- 
vated by ill usage and goaded to revenge, for a temper of peace and 
good will to all around him. It is one of the fallacies which result 
from ignorance of the nature and working of the human mind, to ex- 
pect reformation as a result of punishment. They excite feelings the 
antipodes of each other, and which, therefore, can as little co-existas 
the noonday of London and New Zealand. It is a deplorable error 
that you can fore ; reform — that you can, in the active sense, reform 
the convict ; he must reform himself. It is your part to take 
care that you dc not hinder him by your punishments: but that, on 
the contrary, you lead him to will to amend, by quieting his animal 
and^calling into activity his moral feelings ; gradually bringing back 
his self-respect, by according him a portion of your apprcbation as he 
deserves it ; and stimulating his industry, by realizing to him its 
fruits in a marked melioration of his condition, and improvement of 
his prospects; with the ultimate reward of restoration to society, fur- 
nished with a means of livelihood and a re-established character, and 
not without the patronage and countenance of the friends and well 
wishers of a genuine return to virtue.* 

Mr. Livingston's penal infliction is never operating at the same 
time with his reformatory process ; there is no refoxm attempted while 
the convict has not yet left his original cell, or has by his own miscon- 
duct brought himself back to it. It is not attempted, because it 
would be fruitless. The beams of moral culture begin to shine upon 
him, and communicate their warmth and their light, when he is in the 
mood to come forth and willingly resume his labour. According to 
my humble view., it is essential that all the functionaries in a reforma- 
tory shall belong to the third class, and possess a predominating 
moral and intellectual constitution. "With enough of courage and 
firmness, and general authoritative weight of character, to put down 
mutiny with a word, or even a look, and fearlessly suppress revolt if 
it should break out, — which solitude or well-earned society of small 
numbers wOuld each render next to impossible, — the ordinary de- 
meanour of such persons should be mild, kind, cheerful and encou* 
raging. These qualities would insure, not only the respect, but the 
affection of the convicts, and such society would itself be the object 
of their desire, and an incentive to, and reward of, steady and un- 
wearying good conduct. The reform in the functionary department 
would require to amount to a revolution. You must reform the office- 
bearers as preliminary to reforming their charge. From the governor 
down to the humblest servant of the establishment, you must weed 
out carefully every remnant of classes first and second of human 
beings ; and having filled every department with class third, train 
the office-bearers in all their degrees to a systematic exercise of their 
best feelings in their intercourse with the convicts. Look at the 
grateful confidence which criminals place in a prison governor who 
has treated them considerately and kindly ; or in a clergyman of 
tranquil benevolence and true Christian humility, who, when they 
were in prison, has visited 'hem, not to threaten, and denounce and 
terrify, but gently to lead his fellow sinners from the error of their way. 

♦This would supersede the necessity of the separate establishment of what are 
called " Houses of Refuge for discharged criminals." 
17* 



19S EFFICIENT PROTECTION FROM CRIME. 

The greatest change would be, that the functionaries, secular and re- 
ligious, — if these must be distinct, though it might lead more directly 
to practical religion that they were not distinct, — instead of, as now, 
guarding, coercing, punishing, locking-up, and always overbearing^ 
degrading, and insulting their unfortunate charge, should devote a 
large portion of their time to intimate society with them, often share 
their meals, and generally associate with them.* I am well aware 
that, from the wretched moral education of the " better" classes of 
society, a towering prejudice will long be in the way of obtaining men 
of sufficient moral and religious elevation thus to follow a blessed ex- 
ample, and consent to dwell with sinners. This repugnance has a 
deep foundation in the present degradation of the instruments of the 
criminal law, those who execute punishment. Nothing can be con- 
ceived more confirmatory of our whole argument than this very de- 
gradation. By a law of our nature, we cannot respect the animal 
feelings ; and from these, and these alone, come the actual infliction 
of punishment. But when, under a new system, the moral and in- 
tellectual faculties in every functionary within the precincts of the 
asylum, shall be in constant exercise, the contempt will cease with 
the degraded character, and the office of a criminal reformator will 
take rank in social estimation according to the qualities required, and 
the social benefits bestowed. To many— to the great majority — all 
this will no doubt appear wild and preposterous ; but it is not the 
less true to nature. There are many evils under which society 
groans, which can only be cured by means which must shock exist- 
ing prejudices. But if we will cherish our prejudices, however to our 
reason they can be demonstrated to be absurd and hurtful, we have 
no right to complain of individual and social suffering. Yet it would 
not be difficult, by proper management, in time to overcome the dis- 
positions to vilify the functionaries of a reformatory asylum. I sup- 
pose the whole system changed by a grand act of legislation, or an ex- 

* Contrast this with the tremendous infliction of silence for years. There are 
some temperaments on which long enforced silence seems to operate most alarm- 
ingly. These, I should conjecture, are stout, healthy, active, bustling, social, and 
talkative persons, who have a strong impulse to speak. That there is such an im- 
pulse cannot be doubted, and the American prisoners bore their testimony that its 
enforced and long continued restraint is in the highest degree painful. If this is 
true, we can conceive the impulse becoming morbid. Mr. Rose, the humane and 
enlightened governor of the National Jail at Edinburgh, lately communicated to 
me a painful confirmario.i of this conjecture. J. C. was, three years ago, sentenced 
by the High Court of Justiciary to fourteen years transportation, which was com- 
muted for confinement in the Millbauk penitentiary, where silence is enforced with 
a rigidity not exceeded in America. The man was about twenty seven years of 
age, of unusually (strong robust health, accustomed to a life of great bodily and 
considerable mental activity, and was particularly in patient, irritable, assuming, 
and talkative. This most unfit subject for the tailor's board was nevertheless 
squatted upon one, and forbid to utter a syllable under pain of severe punishment ! 
The uuwonted employment and still more unwonted silence affected his mind, and 
one day during the chapel service, he started up, and burst into the most demo- 
niacal denunciations against the preacher and his doctrine, which he continued till 
he was taken away and put in confinement. It was found that he had become so 
decidedly insane, that it was necessary to remove him to a lunatic hospital. It 
might have beep assumed that so unnatural a state as continued silence for months 
or years cannot be free from evil effects. The experiment is at best empirical, and 
there is something revolting in such blind trials, when productive of severe human, 
suffering. 



EFFICIENT PROTECTION FROM CRIME. 199 

periment made, under high sanction, in one or two new establishments. 
Let a few men already high in society, at least of known talents and 
respectability, set an example, by "taking office" under the system. 
Let liberal salaries, and even honours, be the reward of the high- 
mindedness which shall determine such men to devote themselves for 
so immense a public good. Let the King delight to honour such pa- 
triotism ; and let all sensible men and women of really good society 
agree to view it as a passport to, instead of a cause of exclusion from, 
their circles. These moral physicians would come, in more enlight- 
ened times, to suffer no more of debasement from the duties of the 
moral hospitals in which they practised, than the medical officer now 
does by his assiduities in a cholera hospital, an infirmary, or a luna- 
tic asylum. Much of the time of the reformators must of course be 
devoted to the asylum ; but so to their respective vocations is the 
time of well employed professional men, who yet have leisure hours 
for the pleasures of choicer society, and the solace of the domestic 
circle. The Archbishop of Dublin has evidently never contemplated 
this mode of reforming criminals. 

But there are yet farther recommendations of an enlightened refor- 
matory system. There is an element in it which will incalculably 
facilitate its work. It secludes the young offender the instant he has 
by an overt-act manifested criminal tendencies. In calculating the 
probabilities of the reformation of criminals, we are apt, as the Arch- 
bishop has done, to take them as we now find them deforming the 
face of moral nature in all the ages and degrees of hardened and all 
but hopeless depravity. There are criminals, I admit, upon whom 
even such an asylum would fail to produce satisfactory effects ; and 
it is to be feared that many of the presently existing criminal adults, if 
once within the walls, must bid adieu to free society. But it is a noble 
feature of enlightened legislation, that it contemplates the well-being 
of the race more than that of the existing generation ; and listens not 
to the selfishness which holds all improvement Utopian which our 
little selves of an hour are too far gone in moral disease and decrepi- 
tude to live to enjoy. We are well entitled to expect great re- 
sults with the young, and to look to a shorter duration of corrective 
discipline with them than with the more advanced and confirmed. A 
few years, — for years it ought to be, not as now to punish a first of- 
fence, but to change a criminal character, — will reform all young 
offenders who are reformable. 

If the seclusion of young offenders shall lighten the labours, and 
assure the success of a wise reformatory system, there is yet a pre- 
vious treatment of the young which will greatly diminish the number 
of young offenders themselves, and that is the practical moral exer- 
cise of infant education. Infant schools take children, from two 
years of age to six, off the streets ; collect them to the number of from 
100 to 300 in a hall and a play-ground, for six or eight hours every 
day ; communicate to them, accessonly, no small portion of useful 
knowledge; but, principally exercise them, on a religious basis, in 
truth, honesty, and mercy, the direct contraries of crimes against 
property, limb, and life ; and prevent by anticipation, all the wretched 
habits, prejudices, and ignorances, which render the lower oideis in- 
tractable and even dangerous. Of course, the idea of certain separa- 



200 EFFICIENT PROTECTION FROM CRIME. 

tion from free society for years in the reformatory asylums, as the re- 
sult of even one slip from rectitude, would be a constant school les- 
son ; and would, at that age, make a more lasting - impression, than 
at any other, upon the mind. No one who has read the first Re- 
port of the Edinburgh Infant School Society, which contains a series 
of incidents that had been noted and watching the workings of moral 
motives upon the plastic minds of the children, and who reflects that 
the creatures so engaged are of the rank in life which furnishes the 
great majority of criminals, will hesitate to join in the fervent hope 
that the Legislature will speedily come to see the vital importance, 
the indispensability of infant training, and from the public purse es« 
tablish schools for it universally in the country. " Give your pence," it 
was said, when the public of Edinburgh were urged to contribute to the. 
erection of the model school, established there three years ago, " give 
your pence to infant schools, and save your pounds on police esta- 
blishments, jails, bridewells, "transportations, and executions."* I 
have no doubt that this saving would follow the universality of infant 
training on the Wilderspin plan, which would be found the best and 
most rational, I may say the only effectual, prevention of crime. 

Mendicity, above all in its most deplorable form, infant mendicity, 
should be rigorously put down. 

3d, The convict's restoration to society, when so far reformed as 
to be fit for it, is the third requisite of our seclusion system. The 
sentence on the first conviction for crime should be so extensive, as to 
justify any length of detention which his character may on trial be 
found to require. A sentence of seclusion, for life, for example, un- 
less declared fit for discharge in a shorter period, by a named com- 
mission in which perfect confidence might be placed. It is plain that 
the sentence for life would operate nominally in all cases in which it 
would be expedient to shorten the term, and would give legal power 
of indefinite detention in dangerous and incurable cases ; which, if 
the first commitment were in youth, would rarely, very rarely, occur. 
Before it is hastily concluded that this life detention is disproportionate 
to perhaps a first conviction, let it be recollected that the first overt 
act gives society the right to protect itself against the tendencies by 
that act manifested, and to seclude the criminal, not in punishment 
of that act, but for thef safety of society, till his moral cure be com- 
plete. The present course is to train him on by a series of confine- 
ments and discharges, which combine to ripen him for the gibbet, by 
means of which society protect themselves against him certainly very 
effectually. 

At h, The fourth requisite is society's protection against the criminal 
tendencies of others, in so far as example may operate from the mode 
of seclusion which, inexorably, and without such a thing as pardon, 
I would propose to apply to every convicted criminal, on his or her 
first offence. Pardon would be as absurd on our system, as pardon 
of a sick person that he may not go to the hospital, take the medicine, 
or submit to the surgical operation. Now I know and acknowledge 

* The incidents alluded to furnish proofs of honest restoration of money found, 
of safety of property of all kinds, of kindness of the children to each other, and of 
sparing animals and insects when in their power, — not in a few instances, but as the 
general and ordinary habits of the little community, See Appendix No. III. 



EFFICIENT PROTECTION FROM CRIME. 201 

that the proposed treatment applied to others, will not diter the un- 
fortunate beings of class first from crime But neither do the gal- 
lows, the scomge, the tread-wheel, forced labour, the hulks, or trans- 
portation. Double, quadruple, 2f you will, the severity of these inflic- 
tions, — re-establish breaking on the wheel, and the furnace, and their 
terrors will pass over the reckless heads of these slaves of criminal 
tendencies like the idle wind. Things, therefore, as to that class, 
suffer no change by any mitigation, or any aggravation, of punish- 
ment. But even as to them there is a vast gain to society on the sys- 
tem proposed. As things are, these dangerous members of society 
are all at large. The proper protection is not catching one of the 
tigers and hanging him up, or shipping him off now and then, while 
we trust to safety from all the rest who are roaming, to their being 
sufficiently moved to will to abstain from crimes. What sort of pro- 
tection is this, and who feels safe from it? Who trusts to such mo- 
tives for his security on the lonely road or in the detached house ? 
Now, in the plan proposed there is almost a certainty of having the 

WHOLE OF CLASS FIRST SAFE WITHIN WALLS, AND UNDER TREATMENT. 

The first conviction of each entitles society to lay hold of him. He 
has declared the war, by committing the first hostile act. You trust 
to his will, we to our walls. You let the menagerie loose, we fence 
it round with all the force of engineership, and we should go to bed 
probably with much more confidence than you possibly can do. 

Clas3 second, whom the present penal sanctions no doubt influ- 
ence will be equally influenced by the proposed seclusion. How- 
ever divested of severe infliction, mere seclusion for an indefinite 
term of years, complete change of life and status, and social hope* 
and prospects, are, in any view, enormous — or, if the Archbishop of 
Dublin likes the term better, most formidable evils to class second. 
They are not reckless, but calculating, and will be more influenced 
by the change of condition — the nearly civil annihilation of an inex- 
orable system, which misses no criminal, pardons none, favours none, 
than even by the present more severe but more uncertain punish- 
ments. To the penitentiary they know they must go on the first 
offence ; prosecutors will no longer flinch ; juries no longer perjure 
themselves to screen them ; to the penitentiary for the first offence 
they must go, and commence a several years' task of rebuilding a 
character which they might have kept entire. It would, of course, be 
matter of trial, but we anticipate that not more of class second than 
now fall, would do so under the new system. 

It will, moreover, be kept in mind, that individuals of class second 
are just those who, in the nicely-trimmed balance of their characters 
between good and evil, and their dependence upon circumstances for 
the preponderance, are the most likely to benefit by the judicious 
preventive eeucational system, which I am entitled to assume 
coexistent, all over the country, with the reformatory asylums. 
This class are farther capable of much higher education and intel- 
lectual improvement than class first. It has been proved that a great 
extent of knowledge and resource may, at a very cheap rate, be put 
within the reach of the humbler ranks of society. Such pursuits, 
provided there has been previous education, elevate the mind above 



202 EFFICIENT PROTECTION FROM CRIME. 

the mere sensuality that leads to crime ; fill up, with these the time 
otherwise wasted in idleness and vice, and you will give those juster 
views of the relations of things, and of causes and consequences in the 
conduct of life, which form such important elements in prudence and 
respectability. If class first may, in various degrees, be morally im- 
proved within the new asylum, class second may be reformed out of 
it, so as never to require to come within its walls. 

It will be said by those who hesitate to place confidence in views 
so violently novel, — so contrary to all preconceived notions on the 
subject of crimes and punishments, that crime is a wide word ; that 
it includes violence to the person as well as plunder of the properly — 
maiming and murder, as well as theft and robbery, forging and swind- 
ling ; that the maimer or murderer is a totally different kind of criminal 
from the thief, and that what may deter the one will not deter the other ; 
that the thief is a calculator, the murderer the momentary slave of a sud- 
den and often insane impulse Such murderer's crime the Americans 
denominate murder in the second degree. But the murderer in the first 
degree, who has coolly premeditated and planned his act of blood, is as 
much a calculator as the robber of a bank, who has laid his plan and 
watched its operation for a twelvemonth. Such a murderer.has time 
and coolness to calculate all chances and consequences, and seclu- 
sion — in his case decidedly for life — must and will form a considera- 
ble element in his formula. If the history, of all murderers, in either 
degree, were inquired into, from their childhood to their exit on the 
scaffold, I will peril the whole question upon the fact that they will 
almost all be found to belong to class first. My own knowledge on 
this head is by no means limited, and I have seen no exception. 
Such persons have all manifested a vicious, ferocious, and revengeful 
childhood and youth, and an intensely selfish, sensual, and turbulent 
disposition ; and have come forth in overt acts of violenceand cruelty, 
long before their final crime of murder. Those sons of violence are as 
well known, and as ascertainable in their progress to their last act of 
outrage against the person, as the thieves in their war against pro- 
perty, and require reformatory treatment quite as much ; and although 
the proposition may be new, and therefore startling, I would place 
the ferocious, vindictive, and cruel under treatment in their youth, 
whenever a conviction of criminal injury is recorded against them. 
But the plunderers are as five hundred to one to the slayers. Mur- 
der is abjured by your adroit thief; it is too clumsy and noisy a trans- 
ference of property ; and as a concomitant of robbery, it is now rarely 
resorted to. It is for the most part the act of mere revenge, or sud- 
den rage, and not seldom of insanity. The murders by maniacs or 
monomaniacs, whose specific insanity is an uncontrollable appetite to 
shed blood, being deducted, as clearly the acts of irresponsible agents, 
there will remain few sane murderers to be disposed of.* 

The obvious course with the infant violent and cruel — for the pro- 
pensity can be dated from the cradle— is to exercise them practically 
in mildness and mercy, in an intercourse with children of their own 
age ; to wean them from all cruel practices and destructive habits, 

t: $§e this important and novel subject treated of in the Appendix Nq. |I, 



EFFICIENT PROTECTION FROM CRIME. 203 

from all injury to other children and animals, and from all impulses 
to break, deface, and destroy.* 

When past the age of the infant school, young persons who con- 
tinue dangerous should be narrowly watched j and the first act of 
violent or cruel injury should, without partiality, consign the actor to 
the asylum. This, as in the case of other crimes, is justice and mercy 
to the individual himself. The real interest of the criminal and the 
public coincide in nature ; it is a false theory which would represent 
them as opposed. Insane homicides are of course fit subjects for a 
lunatic asylum ; the blood shed by them is as much inevitable calami- 
ty, as if it had been shed by a wild beast, or an accident. But society, 
from ignorance of the incipient and progressive symptoms of insanity, 
are remiss in observing the unhappy victims of this disease, who all 
exhibit insane tendencies to injure and destroy, long before they ac- 
tually take life. If the reformatory asylum be a moral hospital, and 
not a place of artificial infliction, insanity itself may, in its predis- 
posed inmates,! be warded off by its discipline. 

I am, therefore, of those who advocate the abolition of capital 
punishment in all cases whatever. In offences against property, 
I deny both the right to inflict capital punishment, and the expedi- 
ency ; and, although in crimes against limb and life, I may grant the 
right, I utterly deny the expediency. Society will gain nothing, but 
lose much, by its infliction; and ought therefore, in such cases, as 
have resisted allearly preventive training, and eluded all subsequent 
watchfulness and restraint, to be content with seclusion for life of the 
miserable murderer. 

The Solicitor-General of England would punish capitally, as is 
observed in the outset, such crimes as the individual attacked might 
have repelled by taking life. With deference, there is a fallacy here. 
An individual assailed is urged aad justified, by a law of nature, to 
defend his own life by destroying his assailant ; but the relation be- 
tween society and the criminal. is totally different after the murder is 
committed. It can no longer be prevented, the urgency has ceased, 
and the treatment of the criminal is to be judged of. by altogether 
different views of expediency, on the principles I have been endea- 
vouring to unfold. We may kill even a maniac who would other- 
wise kill us ; but, suppose he triumphs w T ho would dream of putting 
him to death for our homicide, because we had a right to kill him 
when he attacked us. 

The Prison Discipline Society, and the Society for the Abolilion 
of Capital Punishments, are both for visiting even murder with a 
lesser punishment than death. The Americans, it is thought errone- 
ously, reserve it for premeditated murder. The humane and pro- 
found Beccaria, a century ago, denounced capital punishment in to'to, 
and so much shocked an unprepared age. that he concealed his name. 

* For the beautiful results of this moral training, see again Report of the Edin- 
burgh Infant School Society for 1832, Appendix No. III. To that Report we 
would especially draw the attention of the societies for the prevention of cruelty 
to'animals. Infant schools, and these alone, will aieet their benevolent wishes, and 
supersede their present fruitless labours. 

t Archbishop Whately's belief that insane persons may be restrained by the 
fear of punishment, proceeds from the entire mistake of the natuie of insanity 
w hich yet pervades society. See Appendix No. II. 



204 EFFICIENT PROTECTION FROM CRIME. 

The feeling is yet almost all-prevalent, that, murder deserves capital 
punishment, and will never be prevented without it. Here are retri- 
bution and example again : — the first we have already shown, dis- 
owned in the abstract, and the last inoperative upon maniacs, and 
upon the same who would not be sufficiently deterred by the prospect 
of' detention for life in the proposed penitentiary. I trust, therefore, 
that we may be speedily delivered from witnessing the tremendous 
spectacle of man putting man to death ; that act which none can see 
without moral deterioration ; nnd of which the private perpetration, 
proposed by Archbishop W.hately from the best motives, is only an 
aggravation of the horrors which we in vain attempt to banish from 
our mind when we think of capital punishments.* 

Lastly, The last requisite is economy. The present system is any 
thing but economical. The secondary punishment of transportation 
is notoriously costly and unproductive ; so are the hulks ; and so are 
f.ll the houses of correction and jails, — the great majority in this coun- 
try, — which do not, by the labour of the inmates, pay the whole or a 
part of their own expense. Of course, all this expense, which would 
be saved, falls to be deducted from that of the general establishment 
of our proposed reformatory asylums ; nay, much of the loss, and it 
is immense, which society sustains by criminal dep-edations, will be 
saved, when the depredators are secluded and taken care of in a 
distinct society made for them. Some of the American penitentia- 
ries, by the introduction of profitable labour, have more than cleared 
their own annual expense, and might therefore rear a sinking fund 
to pay off the original outlay of the buildings. Auburn, in one year, 
realized 40,000 dollars, besides building 200 additional cells, and 
erecting a stone shop 150 feet long by 58 broad. What is to hinder 
this being done with every penitentiary in this country ? Glasgow 
bridewell comes near to it.t There must exist, at present, prisons 
and bridewells which do contain all convicted, besides all accused, 
persons. In these places of confinement, according to the Commit- 
tee of the House of Commons, 122,000 persons accused of crimes, 
in seven years ending in 1S31, were actually confined,! of these 
85,000 were convicted. One-seventh of this number, or about 12,000, 
was the average amount of the annual convictions. But there would, 
under the new system, be no such amount of new and distinct indi- 
viduals. Under the present wretched system of conviction and re- 
conviction we may presume that, in these seven years, the same in- 
dividual, in every case, contributed to swell the catalogue of convic- 
tions by repeated appearances. Besides, the average of actual con- 

* The writer of this paper thinks the Archbishop right, in holding the Old Tes- 
tament declaration, " Whoso sheddeth man's blood," &c, not binding under 
the Christian dispensation. It is not thereon that he approves of capital punish- 
ment. 

t It has often occurred that our soldiers and sailors might be rendered more pro- 
ductive labourers than they are. Both services would even be benefited, if some 
useful manufacture were established in every barrack, and ship of war, at which 
the men could be easily taught to work for some hours each day when off duty. 

| I surely need not guard the reader from the supposition that I mean to include 
the detained for trial, the presumed innocent, in our penitentiary, — to put the un- 
proved sick into our hospital. Places of mere detention require their own re- 
forms to prevent injustice and contamination ; and trial should speedily follow 
apprehension. 



EFFICIENT PROTECTION FROM CRIME. 205 

victions in these last seven years has so immensely increased upon 
that of the preceding seven years, and still more on the same period 
antecedent to them, (62,000 and 35,000 respectively,) that I cannot 
help indulging the hope that so vast a social retrogression has some 
cause which will not operate permanently. But had each offender* 
when first convicted, been consigned to the proposed asylum, the 
convictions would have shown a greatly smaller sum, and the num* 
ber of individual criminals — for that is the consideration in estimat- 
ing the extent and number of penitentiaries —a much more manage- 
able result. The securing, too, of the old offenders, who train the 
young, would operate most beneficially, The difficulties will of 
course, as in all reforms, be greatest at the first The present race 
of adult criminals would prove a heavy load upon our working ; but 
even that is not insuperable ; and it is- a necessary evil which we 
must meet, as we would a war, or any other object worthy of a na- 
tional effort. Vfe should be immense gainers in the end : in less 
than half a generation — for justice as well as benevolence legislates 
for posterity. Society would reap all the fruit of preventive train- 
ing and s early reformatory treatment which I so confidently antici- 
pate ; and then the establishments and the buildings, which may be 
required by our present circumstances, w 7 ould be found unnecessarily 
extensive and numerous. 

Such are the views which I would humbly, but earnestly, press 
upon the consideration of the intellectual and moral leaders of public 
opinion, as likely to solve that baffling problem of criminal legislation, 
the efficient, at least the reasonable, protection of society from crime. 
They involve, jfcrst, the realization, — and that bt the nation, 

FOR IT IS HOPELESS FROM VOLUNTARY PHILANTHROPY, — of A UNI- 
VERSAL system of preventive education, commenced all but in 
the cradle, and carried on till useful knowledge and intellectual 
resource shall improve the character and elevate the pursuits; — 
secondly, The instant and rigid seclusion — the earlier in life the 
better^ — of each unfortunate individual, whose disposition to crime is 
manifested by an overt act, for want, or in spite of, previous pre- 
ventive education ; — thirdly, The appliance of a course of reformatory 
treatment to his moral disease, of sufficient duration to change his 
habits, and give a higher direction to his faculties ; and, as is done in 
lunatic asylums, the detention of the patient until the cure is so far 
wrought as to render it safe to venture him again in society ;— fourthly, 
— and it is an entire novelty in practice, if not in theory, — The ap- 
plication to this cure of moral and not of animal means. Medically, 
according to our light, We consult the patient's organic and function- 
ary constitution, in order to determine the treatment of his disease : 
with a view to a moral cure, we must consult no less the principles 
of our subject's moral being ; and, contented with the safety we enjoy 
from his secure detention and seclusion, and with the operation of 
that seclusion, in the way of example, upon these without the walls 
whose mental and moral condition fits (hem to be swayed by example 
at all, we shall provide for him a mode of life so arranged that, with- 
out direct or artificial infliction of pain and suffering upon his body, 
beyond the calm turning of a key upon him when of himself he de- 
scends to zero, he may choose his own position between the extreme 
18 



206 EFFICIENT PROTECTION FROM CRIME. 

of solitary privation, and as much of social comfort and happiness as 
the necessary evil of detention will permit, which evil itself he shall 
have it also in his power greatly to abridge. The moment he volun- 
tarily emerges from the lowest part of the scale,— which he must first 
endure that he may know it, and may afterwards, if he chooses re- 
turn to it, — he shall breathe -in an atmosphere religious, moral, and 
intellectual, and be thereby stimulated to improve his own condition, 
physical and moral, which, at one and the same time, will diminish 
the irksomeness of his confinement, elevate his character to self-re- 
spect, and fit him essentially for a reputable return to society.* 

If such views are yet in advance of the age — if we cannot brook 
the idea of divorcing two things apparently so naturally linked toge- 
ther, as crime and retributive and exemplary pain directly inflicted, we 
have no right to complain of the failure, and the suffering, with which 
the Creator has willed that all attempts to found ourinstitutions upon 
the inferior propensities shall punish themselves. But the hour is on 
the wing when the great truth will be practically acknowledged, that 
the Author of Nature has constituted human affairs in relation to the 
supremacy of the moral part of man over the animal, — of the law in 
the mind g'ver the law in the members, and when all human institu- 
tions will take a character in accordance with that truth ; — a truth 
old in Scripture, but new to human practice, — the most important 
in its height, and depth, and length, and breadth, the most all-per- 
vading in its application to human concerns, here and hereafter, that 
has ever dawned on philosophy ; — which the most advanced student 
of the relations of social man will find the load-star of his course, 
steer he whithersoever he will through the expanse of the moral uni- 
verse, and alike his torch search he into the secret shadows of domes- 
tic life and individual motive ; — at once the telescope for the vast and 
the microscope for the minute— the blood with which the heart swells 
and the extremest capillary beats ;— " the kingdom of Heaven with- 
in us," — the essence of Christianity. We see the moral faculties, in 
many improvements in the social system, besides the benevolent mi- 
tigation of punishments, pointing instinctively to hear their legitimate 
results ; and we hail their influence with joy, because we arc persuad- 
ed that the Constitution of Creation is. in harmony with their dic- 
tates, and that they will lead us to sound and successful practical 
conclusions, if once allowed to guide our social arrangements. 

Since the foregoing paper appeared in the Edinburgh Law Jour- 

* I earnestly recommend "A Treatise on Gaols and Penitentiaries, by Major 
James Palmer, one of the Inspectors-General of Prisons in Ireland," The coinci- 
dence of the writer's views, in almost every point, is a gratifying proof of the 
march of the high moral principles which I humbly advocate ; while his practical 
experience leading him to adopt them, gives me yet stronger assurance that they 
nmst and will prevail, He is more of an ivflicter — though not much — than I am 
inclined to be ; chiefly to take from the Penitentiary the attractions of a comfort- 
able settlement of voluntary criminals. But it murt not be forgotten, that, with Mr. 
Livingston, I propose six or twelvemonths sufficiently unattractive probation for 
all that enter the walls ; and after that, a reformatory seclusion, which must last for 
years. Honest labour must indeed be scarce in free society, if this shall be prefer- 
red to liberty. Assuredly no one would make the choice twice, — the best reason 
for not making it at all. I have also seen the presentment by the Grand Jury to the 
Chairman of the Middlesex Sessions, of loth March, 1833. It is a document credit- 
able to the age and country. I could adopt almost every word of it. 



EFFICIENT PROTECTION FROM CRIME. 207 

nal, 1 have perused the Reports for 1833 of the Philadelphia Society 
for alleviating the Miseries of Public Prisons, and of the House of 
Refuge of Philadelphia. These convey the latest information which 
has yet come from America. The first of these reports is gratifying, 
in so far as it is, in its whole spirit and principle, a marked advance 
upon the Auburn, Weathersfiekl, and all the penitentiaries, except 
Mr. Livingston's, to which we have alluded. The improved model 
described is the State Penitentiary of the Eastern district of Pensylva- 
nia ; and the report states that it has been adopted by the Western 
Penitentiary, by the prison for the city and county of Philadelphia, by 
that for the counties of Alleghany and West Chester, and by the state 
of New- Jersey, in virtue of an act of its Legislature. The objects of 
this system are reformation of the criminal, and deterring others from 
committing crimes The means are the perfect and total separation 
of the prisoners, night and day, from the beginning to the end of their 
confinement, with labour in their solitude ; while the visits of the pri- 
son-officers, who are moral, religious, and humane persons, constitute 
the only relief to the'prisoner in his seclusion, and the means of his re- 
formation. The prisoner is taught to read if he requires to be so, and 
the Bible and well selected books of a library aie lent him for his 
hours of leisure. He is taught a trade if unacquainted with one, the 
principal being weaving and shoe-making ; but there are also carpen- 
ters, blacksmiths, dyers, wheelwrights, &c. He is treated with kind- 
ness and encouragement, but firmness, and is'never punished with the 
lash. Neatness and cleanliness are carefully observed, both in the 
cells and persons of the prisoners, — exercise is regular, diet is plain 
and nutritive, and clothing and bedding suitably comfortable. 

The results have hitherto been satisfactory, and are highly spoken 
of in the report, as the admiration alike of natives and strangers. 
No convict discharged has ever returned ; either, it is said, from re- 
formation, or dread of the solitude. Health is not injured by the 
solitude, inasmuch as communication is continual with the prison- 
officers. No provision, however, seems to be made for the stated 
visits of the members of an ass©ciation of benevolent and enlightened 
persons, to aid the functionaries in lightening the prison solitude, and 
encouraging the prisoners in the progress of their reformation, — a 
christian duty, in the exercise of Avhich an unbounded source of use- 
fulness presents itself to both sexes. Occasional visits, however, of 
benevolent and pious individuals, are mentioned. Many instances of 
reformation are recorded, and others which prove that the solitary 
system is an object of terror to those criminals, at least, who have 
experienced it. Work is eagerly applied for to relieve the lrksome- 
ness of solitude. Pardons are most wisely granted with so much 
difficulty, that they are rarely applied for. Lastly, the prison has 
paid hitherto, every expense but the officers 1 salaries, which it is ex- 
pected in due time also to defray. 

My humble observation on this system is, that, while it has more 
of terror in it 'than J have recommended, it has less chance of produc- 
ing genuine and lasting reformation, — real improvement of charac- 
ter. If the plan I have submitted possesses example enough, to all 
who are ever swayed by example, solitude/or years is a fearful degree 
of severity. It farther does not present that encouragement to im- 



208 EFFICIENT PROTECTION FROM CRIME. 

provement in industry, skill, and character, which what has been 
called promotion in the prison itself, — namely to society and other 
advantages, — furnishes. It is too inflictive, too retributive, for those 
who are viewed as unhappy patients. But it possesses one essential 
advantage, namely, that were it once established, all the higher ap- 
pliances which I have advocated could be experimentally engrafted 
upon it. The Eastern Pennsylvania penitentiary is a grand advance 
in the general system. 

The Philadelphian House of Refuge for young offenders is the most 
perfect institution of the kind I have ever seen described. It is a 
place of confinement, and so far is a penitentiary for the young. The 
magistrate can commit to it, and the friends of the young offender 
often apply to have him or her admitted. T.he education and work 
however, are not, and could not well be, solitary. The expense is 
great, and cannot, to any considerable amount, be defrayed by the 
apprentice-labour of the inmates. Such an institution would be in- 
valuable for juvenile offenders discharged from our prisons, as they 
are now constituted ; but, as formerly observed, entirely superfluous 
in addition to penitentiaries upon the plan recommended. The ob- 
jection that the inmates of our present prisons will not be received' 
into honest employments, will be found to apply as little to proper- 
Penitentiaries as to the Philadelphia House of Refuge. 



209 



No. II. 



OBSERVATIONS ON THE DEGREE OF KNOWLEDGE YET APPLIED 
TO THE INVESTIGATION OF INSAMTY IN TRIALS FOR CRIME. 
CHIEFLY VIOLENCE AND HOMICIDE.* 

The state of judicial practice in dealing with the defence of insani- 
ty, is far from satisfactory. It is much to be feared that the capital 
punishment of the insane, and, of course, the irresponsible, is not ah 
unfrequent spectacle. No blame is imputable to judges and juries ; 
they conscientiously act, for the public interest, according to the best 
of their lights ; but these are yet weak and glimmering, in the crimi- 
nal courts of Europe, while stronger are shining on the outside than 
have yet penetrated their walls. I would not counsel precipitation in 
enlarging the boundaries of this most difficult branchof medical juris- 
prudence : but, convinced that these are actually narrow and unphi- 
losophical, I hold it to be the duty of all who have access to probable 
means of rendering them more comprehensive as well as accurate, to 
make their views as public as possible ; that if sound, they may 
w r ork their way, and by degrees diminish the sum of unconscious 
injustice and cruelty which results from the crude notions yet pre- 
valent on the subject. 

That mind which God has visited with disease is irresponsible and 
unpunishable, is the law of both Scotland and England; otherwise 
the defence of insanity would not be sanctioned in our courts of law 
at all. The too common but irrational doctrine that the insane, who, 
from the uncontrollable impulse of disease, commit acts which, in the 
sane, amount to capital crimes, should be immolated without mercy, 
is disavowed by the existing laws of civilized society. It is a doc- 
trine of ignorance, indolence, and selfishness We heard it lately 
propounded, in its usual dogmatical formula, "I am clear for hang- 
ing all criminal madmen," by an educated gentleman, and put down 
at once by a high officer of the criminal law, to whom in the worst 
taste, it was addressed, by the reply, that that might be very conve- 
nient : but it was not the law of Scotland. That law, we doubt not, 
would punish the practical application of such a doctrine. It would 
be a waste of time to enter here into a serious refutation of it. As- 
suming, then, as a fixed point, that insanity, when established, is fol- 
lowed by immunity from punishment, though not from constraint, the 
field in which we shall work most profitably seems to be, to assist in 
pointing out the means of discriminating, more satisfactorily than has 
hitherto been done, when and in what circumstances defenee of in- 
sanity is admissible. 

* This paper appeared, in substance, in No. V. of the Edinburgh Law Journal. 
18* 



210 HOMICIDAL INSANITY. 

Nothing can be more coarse than the tests or indicia upon which 
criminal courts at present judge. They recognise insanity only in 
the broad lines of fury and extravagance, and consider the presence 
of arrangement or design, or adaptation of means to a rational end, 
quaintly called "method in the madness," as quite incompatible with 
mental alienation or irresponsibility ; — little recking that there may, 
and often does, exist in the mind a single isolated impulse, swaying, 
when in paroxysm, the will, in controlling the reason, to the extent of 
unquestionable irresponsibility, while all the mind besides, and that 
instantly when the fit is off, is entire, acute, and reasonable. 

Our criminal law itself is faultless in principle. All the writers 
down to Mr. Alison concur in stating it to be law, that " to amount 
to a complete bar to punishment, the insanity, either at the time of 
committing the crime, or of the trial, must have been of such a kind 
as entirely deprived the accused of the use of reason, as applied to the 
act in question,, and the knowledge that he was doing wrong in com- 
mitting it."* Of course, it is the aberration of mind as to the particu- 
lar act in the concrete which is considered ; although when question- 
ed, the patient may readily admit that the act, in the abstract, is a 
crime. But as no rule can be laid down by which the degree of in- 
sanity, which amounts to unconsciousness of doing wrong, is ascer- 
tained, all the authorities concur in the sound doctrine, that this must 
in every particular case be left to the jury, on considering the evidence. 
Now it is plain, that the jury will judge well or ill, according to their 
knowledge — or the knowledge of the professional witnesses who en- 
lighten, and the judge who directs them — of the true indicia of that 
degrae of mental alienation which does take away the consciousness 
of crime in the concrete, or may be presitmed to do so : and it is just 
here that knowledge is yet wanted. 

The law books furnish a number of instances where the plea of in- 
sanity was admitted or repelled. The cases in which the defence 
has been admitted are all so broad, as to relieve the most scrupulous 
from apprehension that an}^ person not insane has escaped the punish- 
ment of his crimes. It is not so certain that the converse is to be re- 
lied on. " It is not to be understood," says Mr. Hume, " that there 
is any privilege of mere weakness of intellect, or of a strange and 
moody humour, or of a crazy and capricious or irregular temper and 
habit. None of these things either are or ought to be law." Mr. 
Alison says : " But any thing short of this complete alienation of 
reason will be no defence ; and mere oddity of manner, or half crzii- 
ness of disposition, if unaccompanied by such an obscuring of the 
conscience, will not avail the prisoner." We find the law books 
speaking of partial insanity ; half crazy, partially deranged, are the ex- 
pressions. Lord Hale is quoted by Mr. Alison as saying ; " It is 
the condition of very many, especially melancholy persons, who for 
the most part discover their defect in excessive fears and griefs, and yet 
are not wholly destitute of the use of reason : but this partial insa- 
nity seems not to excuse them in the committal of any capital of- 
fence. Doubtless mad persons that kill themselves are under a par- 
tial degree of insanity ; but it must rest upon circumstances, to be 

* Alison's Criminal Law, page 645. 



HOMICIDAL INSANITY. 211 

duly weighed by the judge and jury, lest, on the one hand, there be 
an inhumanity towards the " defects of human nature, or, on the 
other, too great an indulgence shown to great crimes." Before I 
have done, I trust it will appear that the ignorance of insanity in- 
volved in an authority like this is lamentable. 

Mr. Hume's doctrine is approved by Mr. Alison, that such partial 
insanities should not be a screen from a verdict of guilty, but afford a 
good ground of appeal to the royal mercy. Yet that which both 
these authors would, in all likelihood, deem partial insanity, may 
constitute more complete irresponsibility, than even the violence 
which the law denominates furiosity. Rlr. Alison very properly dis- 
approves of the law, as laid down by Chief Justice Mansfield, in the 
case of Bellingham, who assassinated Mr. Percival. That judge 
held that Bellingham was accountable, because he knew murder to be 
a crime, and could distinguish right from wrong. " On this case," says 
Mr. Alison, " it may be observed, that unquestionably the mere fan- 
cying a series of injuries to have been received, will not serve as an 
excuse for murder, for this plain reason, that, supposing it true that 
such injuries had been received, they would have furnished no excuse 
for the shedding of blood; but, on the other hand, such an illusion 
as deprives the pannel of the sense of what he did was wrong, 
amounts to legal insanity, though he was perfectly aware that mur- 
der in general was a crime ; and, therefore, the law appears to have 
been more correctly laid down in the cases of Hatfield and Bowler 
than in this instance, though no injustice may have been committed 
in the actual result.'"' Mr. Alison forgets that that result was the 
execution of John Bellingham, who suffered upon the laying down of 
the law which did not take into account the prisoner's consciousness 
or unconciousness that what he did was wrong. The opinion is now 
very general that Bellingham was insane, and that his punishment 
was a sacrifice to the excited feelings of the public, — in other words, 
an act of vengeance. 

Kicolson, too, the unhappy murderer, without a motive, — every 
rational motive being on the other side, of a kind master and mis- 
tress, Mr. and Mrs. Bonar, could not possibly know what he was 
doing. The impulse which hurried him to that deed will be explain- 
ed in the sequel ; it is one yet nearly unknown to courts of justice. 

The case of Robert Dean, tried at the Surry" assizes at Kingston 
in 1819, and executed, affords another example of how much our 
neighbours will reject as insufficient evidence of insanity. Dean was 
a young man, of weak intellect, and very strong animal passions. 
He had fixed his affections- upon a young woman of situation in life 
superior to his own, and was rejected by her. The rejection excited 
ungovernable feelings of revenge, and he determined on the murder 
of her whom he loved. He had, at the same time, strong religious 
feelings, and it occurred to him that, by putting the young woman to 
death, he would send an unprepared sinner into the presence of her 
Judge. But the impulse to shed blood had taken irresistible posses- 
sion of him, and there was a child of which he was very fond, whom 
he often carried in his arms and treated with sweetmeats, who, he 
concluded, had fewer sins to answer for, and this he determined 
should be the victim. He slaughtered the innocent child, and gave 



212 HOMICIDAL INSANITY. 

himself up to justice. The act, itself a sufficient proof of insanity, 
was strengthened by insane notions and actions, and absolute raving 
even on the scaffold itself. What did society, that could have con- 
fined that unhappy creature, gain by his death ? 

The case of Captain Moir, some time since executed at Chelms- 
ford, was one of very doubtful sanity. 

Matters are no better in France ; or rather were; for the exposure 
of some recent judicial murders has had the effect of making the 
French judges pause ; and persons have lately been treated as pa- 
tients, whom the previous practice would have put to death as crimi- 
nals. The instances which have staggered the thinking men in 
France, and have produced the most beneficial discussions, were those 
of Lecouffe, Feldtmann, and Papavoin, all of which occurred in 1823. 
The account of the two first forms the substance of a report by M. 
Georget, a celebrated physician of insanity in Paiis, published in the 
Archives of Medicine, vol. viii. p. 177. Louis Lecouffe, a young man 
of twenty-four years of age, was tried by the Court of Assizes at Pa- 
ris, for the murder, at the instigation of his mother, of a woman, with 
whom he was on the most friendly terms ; and whom he farther rob- 
bed of plate, which was pawned for 230 francs, of which his mother, 
who possessed an extraordinary influence over him, gave him only 
40. It was proved that he was epileptic from infancy, and had had 
what the witnesses called some disease of the head. He was held by 
them to be an idiot or fool. At fifteen he showed manifest signs of 
insanity, and affirmed that God came often to visit him. A physi- 
cian who heard him, pronounced him deranged. He confessed the 
murder, directed, as he said, by an apparition of his father with an 
angel at his right hand, while God, placing his hand upon his heart, 
said, " I pardon thee," and commanded him to confess every thing in 
three days. One of the keepers of the Conciergerie declared that 
Lecouffe spoke incoherently in prison, and that he changed his system 
several times in half an hour. He appeared to this witness idiotical 
and weak-minded, hut not exactly what might he called insane. The 
chief keeper said, that he had often seen' the accused with haggard 
looks and eyes filled with tears, complain of headach, but without 
manifesting any true derangement of mind. During the trial, Le- 
couffe was often seized with violent convulsions. A physician de- 
poned that he saw nothing in the appearances of Lecouffe which indi- 
cated a tendency to epilepsy ; and that the skull showed no deformity, 
and did not indicate any species of mental derangement. The Ad- 
vocate-General, says M. Georget, supported the accusation, and 
strongly reprobated the allegation of imbecility ; a dangerous system, 
said he, Avhich is resorted to ia all desperate cases, and by which it 
would be so easy. to secure the impunity of the most atrocious. He 
then endeavoured to prove, by the tendency of the whole life of the 
aecused,-- ■ by the very nature of the crime imputed to him, — by the 
hypocrisy and malice of his defence, — that Lecouffe possessed all his 
faculties in spite of the execrable abuse he made of them. He sup- 
ported his argument by the officers of the Conciergerie, who, he said, 
had never remarked in him the slightest sign of mental derangement. 
We are told, says the advocate-general, that he is sometimes heard 
groaning during the night, that he utters mournful cries, and com- 



HOMICIDAL INSANITY. 213 

plains of being tormented by nocturnal apparitions, and tbinks he 
sees his father and his victim issuing from the tomb to reproach him 
with his crime. But we know the source of these terrors ; they had 
already seized him on the field of murder, when conducted to the 
place where he had slaughtered his victim. They are the effect of 
the implacable remorse which pursues him. His frightful features 
announce the disorder, and the tempest of tumultuous passions which 
devour his heart. 

The advocate of the accused alleged in vain the existence of in- 
sanity, or at least great weakness of mind. Lecoufle was condemned, 
and shortly after executed. 

On this unphilosophical, ignorant, and unfeeling rhapsody of the 
advocate-general, M. Georget remarks : " The alienation of the 
mental faculties of LecoufFe is abundantly evident from the account 
we have given of his state — from the nature of the crime— and from 
his conduct long prior to, as well as after the trial. The advocate- 
general, in giving way to his piece of eloquence, overlooks altogether 
the fact, that LecoufFe had complained of being visited by apparitions, 
and by the Deity himself, nine years before the deed was committed, 
to the remorse consequent upon which deed these visions are at- 
tempted to be traced. Remorse and fearful agitation he certainly 
did feel ; but, instead of this being turned against him to his destruc- 
tion, it ought rather to have saved him, insomuch as it showed that he 
did not act from a ferocious thirst of blood, from which society could,' 
be protected only by his death, but from the overpowering influence 
of a wicked adviser, whom his imbecility had taught him to fear and 
obey. The deed itself was in opposition to his natural character. — 
He entertained a kindly feeling towards his victim, and habitually 
paid her attentions. He, therefore, could not murder her with malice 
or revenge. He robbed her of 230 francs, whieh he might have 
taken without violence; and yet, how much did he gain? forty 
francSj to pay the expenses of his wedding! Certes, the motives to 
the act are no more in relation to the enormity of the crime, than to 
the sentiments of LecoufFe for his victim; and it is therefore else-, 
where that we must seek the cause, and, in our opinion, it is evident- 
ly to be found in mental derangement." 

The advocate-general stated, without foundation, that the officers 
of the prison had never remarked the slightest sign of mental derange- 
ment; while, in point of fact, one of them stated that the prisoner 
talked incoherently, and seemed idiotical and weak-minded, but not 
exactly what might be called insane; the vulgar notion being that in- 
sanity's characteristics are violent, furious, and dangerous ; this re- 
servation is greatly more common than just in criminal trials. But it 
was needless to require more than disease in the head when young, 
epilepsy from infancy, insanity at fifteen, and convulsions in court 
under the very eyes of his judges. Epilepsy frequently impairs the 
mind, and then very generally ends in idiotism. M. Georget, in 
noticing this important fact, copies a table from M. Esquirol, from 
which it appears that out of 339 epileptics in the Salpetriere of Pans 
in 1822, 2 were monomaniacs : 64 maniacs, of whom 34 werefunous ; 
145 imbecile, of whom 129 were so only after the attack: 8 were 
idiots ; 50 were generally reasonable but with loss of memory, exalta. 



214 HOMICIDAL INSANITY. 

tion in the ideas, sometimes a passing delirium and a tendency to 
idiotism ; 60 were without any derangement of intellect, but possessed 
of great susceptibility, irascible, obstinate, difficiles a vivre, capricious 
and eccentric* 

Tt may be asked what testimony was adduced to determine the 
Court to declare this wretched creature sane, in the face of all this de- 
monstration of his insanity. To our grief and surprise, we find no- 
thing which does not carry its own refutation. A physician "saw 
nothing in the prisoner's appearance which indicated any tendency 
to epilepsy, and said that the skull showed no deformity, and did not 
indicate any species of mental derangement." Every person inform- 
ed on the subject will at once condemn this witness as having given 
a very loose and ignorant evidence. It is possible that he may have 
meant to convey only the impression made on his own mind by the 
outward appearance of Lecoufie ; but if the Court and Jury regarded 
his words as expressing his deliberate opinion of the mental state of 
the accused, then he has much with which to reproach himself, for it 
is notoriously impossible to tell from the external appearance that a 
person is subject to epilepsy, and equally absurd to say that the form 
of the skull indicates the existence of mental derangement. 

The case of Feldtmann is one of unusual horror. This wretched 
man stabbed his own daughter with a knife, after several years, Re- 
sistance by her to an incestuous passion which he had conceived for 
her. He at once gave himself up to justice, glorying in the deed. 
His wife spoke to his having often shown derangement, " la tete per- 
due." He had had his skull fractured in his youth, and had been mad 
inconsequence, He entered a Protestant church one day, covered 
with mud, sat down, talked incoherently, and wept without ceasing. 
There was rather a lack of evidence of similar eccentricities, which 
generally weigh so much with courts and juries. Feldtmann was 
condemned and executed. The question of the existence of insanity 
may, in his case, be regarded as much more difficult of solution than 
in the case of Lecouffe, and yet many circumstances concur to prove 
that the disease actually existed, M. Georget, who was on the spot, 
gives it as his opinion, that Feldtmann was not insane in all his facul- 
ties ; but he thinks that the passion which led to the crime had aggra- 
vated into a disease, requiring for its cure seclusion from society; 
and his opinion is greatly confirmed by the declaration of the excel- 
lent and experienced anatomist M. Breschet, who examined the brain, 
and who did not think it presented the appearance of health. The 
very existence, for so many years, of such an unnatural passion as 
that ofFeldtmann's is itself disease, and will require but little aid 
from other indicia to warrant preventive measures for the safety of 
society, instead of vindictive, when the passion has broken out into 
some horrible act. In the sequel I shall add a few words upon the 
signs of that madness which is real, although the inexperienced eye 
4oes not mark it • at present I am only enumerating some cases 
where the alleged maniacs were put to death. 

The case of Papavoin, had it occurred in Scotland, at least now, 
could not have been treated as a case of sanity or responsibility. This 

* Pictionnaire de Medecine, Art, Eph,epsie, 



HOMICIDAL INSANITY. 215 

man was executed at Paris, for the murder of two children previously 
unknown to him, and whom he accidentally saw, accompanied by their 
mother, in the wood of Vincennes. The very absence of all conceivable 
motive to such an act, forces us to take refuge, for the sake of hu- 
manity, in the belief of insanity, even had there been no other indicia. 
But even these last were numerous. It was proved at the trial that 
the prisoner's father had been subject to mental aberrations,— to fits 
of fury, during which he broke and smashed every thing. That the 
son had been marked as a solitary being, shunning society, fleeing 
from his companions, and always sombre and melancholy, walking 
often alone in solitary places. Nobody ever knew him intimately, 
and he never communicated his thoughts to others. In 1823, the 
utter ruin of his father" increased the prisoner's melancholy and irri- 
tability. He had besides an attack of mental alienation, which lasted 
ten days, and two witnesses deponed to it as follows : " He was," 
said a person employed in the Marine at Brest, where the prisoner 
had a clerkship, " in a state of fever ; he said that a man beset him, 
that he saw him, and wished to have a pistol to defend himself with." 
An officer of health, under whose care the prisoner had been, deposed 
that he was sombre, suspicious, believing always that people were 
occupied about him, fleeing the society of women, and often of men ; 
his temper was exasperated ; he saw asecret enemy who appeared to 
him as a 'ghost, and attempted his life. The witness believed the 
prisoner melancholy and hypochondriac. After his father's death he 
became worse ; gave up his employment at Brest, when he only the 
more required it for a livelihood, and returned home, where he insist- 
ed with his mother that his father was not dead, but had been buried 
alive. He went to visit a friend for some days, who thought him 
" physically and morally changed ;" he would often cry out with 
the accent of despair, " What ! not an instant of happiness ! I be- 
lieve in truth that I am mad !" A paper was one day in his friend's 
hand, on which he remarked the letters O N. " What is the mean- 
ing of that?" said Papavoin. " Nothing," said the witness. " I know 
what it means ; it means they drcwn people here /" (on noye ici.) Seve- 
ral other strange fancies were proved, such as, horror of a razor, 
when they proposed to shave him, and such like. He came to Paris 
to settle accounts with his banker, still indulging in solitary walks, 
one of which happened to be in the wood of Vincennes. There he 
saw a lady walking with two young children. He returned to the 
village and bought a knife, came back immediately, accosted the lady 
with a pale look and troubled voice, and stooping as if to embrace 
one of the children, plunged the knife into its heart, and while the 
astonished mother was engaged with the first victim, he killed the 
other, in the same manner ; he then fled ivith a hurried step and buried 
himself in the ivood. The jailor of the prison of La Force, in Avhich 
Papavoin was confined before his condemnation, deposed that he^ 
was sometimes in a most terrified state: that he had moments of 
fury, when his hair bristled up, — the only time he, the jailor, ever saw 
the hair so affected, his countenance became of a lively red ; and he 
terrified the very soldiers that surrounded him. All these facts are to 
be found in the piocess against the wretched Papavoin ; they did not 
save him, but they are quite sufficient to establish the conclusion that 



216 HOMICIDAL INSANITY* 

he committed the dreadful deed, for which he suffered, in a fit of in* 
sanity. A case so extreme has done good in France. It was too 
much even for the present lights. It divided the country into two 
parties, one of whom pertinaciously defended the judgment, while the 
other loudly denounced it as a murder by the arm of the law. The 
effect, however, has been seen in a more recent case in the Parisian 
courts, in which a patient like Papavoin was rescued from the execu- 
tioner, and given over to a keeper ; — an homage to truth and justice, 
when pride was no longer assailed. 

A case occurred in the court of Assizes at Paris of simulated mad- 
ness, that of Jean Pierre, which tended to show how easy the detec- 
tion of this attempt is. This man's crime, in the first place, was 
forgery, which is essentially simulation, and is rarely the result of in- 
sanity. There was no evidence of insanity or any thing like it, till 
after his apprehension ; whereas the history of Lecouffe and Feldt- 
man went back for years. Pie was sent to the Bicetre Hospital for 
the insane, to be observed. He contrived to raise a fire and escape, 
and during his freedom, for he was again apprehended, he proceeded 
to the despatch of business, for he was proved to have written, in the 
interval, a perfectly sensible letter to a correspondent, and completely 
to have recovered his reason. His mania returned with his reim-- 
prisonment ; and. naturally led by the vulgar notion that madness is 
violence, he behaved furiously, when he thought himself seen, and 
remarkably so on his trial. It was observed that in an examination 
which he underwent, not one of his answers would have been given 
by an insane person. For example, Q,. Have you ever had any busi- 
ness with Messrs. Fellene and Desgranger ? two of his dupes. A. 
" I don't know them. Q. Do you acknowledge the pretended nota- 
rial deed which you gave this witness ? A. 1 don't understand this, 
Q. You acknowledged this deed before the Commissary of Police? 
A. It is possible. Q,. Why, on the day of your arrest, did you tear 
the bill for 3800 francs 1 A. I don't recoliect. Q. You stated, in 
your preceding examination, that it was because the bill had been 
paid? A. It is possible." — Toothers of his own previous declara- 
tions the answers were, that he recollected nothing about them. M. 
Esquirol, one of the highest French authorities, was examined, and 
stated that simulation of madness was easily detected, and that this 
was a case of it. 

We cannot have a more instructive example of the imperfection 
which yet attaches to this important and interesting subject of judicial 
practice in our own Courts, than the case of John Flowison, lately 
executed for the murder of Widow Geddes, at King's Cramond. My 
own humble opinion agrees with that which is now very prevalent, 
namely, that that wretched man was not a responsible agent : and as 
I mean very freely to state the grounds of this opinion, for the sake 
of truth and justice, and with the humble hope of pointing out sounder 
views for future cases, I disclaim all reflections on the prosecution, 
court, or jury, for their part, in what I consider a painful matter, and 
to give them that credit which is their due, for having unwillingly but 
conscientiously drawn conclusions, which the degree of light that has 
yet entered Courts of Law, and even generally gu ; des medical prac- 
tice, appeared to them to permit. 



HOMICIDAL INSANITY. 217 

John Howison entered the cottage of an aged woman, whose good 
dispositions were proved by her popularity with her neighbours, and 
without any motive that appeared, for he took nothing away, in a very 
short time fled from the house, having first cleft, with the sharp edge 
of a spade, the head of its defenceless inmate almost in two, the spade 
having entered in an oblique direction above one eye, and sloped to 
below the other. The horrible act was proved by the most conclusive 
evidence ; but insanity wasjpleaded, to account for what it was a moral 
impossibility that any sane human being could, in the circumstances, 
have perpetrated. 

As some evidence was obtained after the trial, with which— how- 
ever it might, and, I humbly think, should have influenced the royal 
mercy — the jury had nothing to do, I shall first state the substance 
of the judicial, and then that of the post-judicial, evidence of Howi- 
son's insanity. 1. He was proved to have been, what many of the 
insane are, as has been seen in the cases of Lecouffe, Feldtmann, 
and Papavoin, and will be seen in several others to be noticed, a soli- 
tary, silent, moody, wandering creature, and that long before the 
Cramond murder. His only friends in his lodgings were the cat and 
a child, and he fed both before eating his own meal. 2. He was 
miserably superstitious, feared supernatural enemies, and resorted .to 
absurd ceremonies to protect himself against witches, salting his bed 
and head, wearing about his wrist, or round his neck, a Bible, which 
he never read, and folded papers attaching to his garments, and to the 
crown of his head, without which, he often said, he would long ago 
have been dead. He had a fancy to become a qu alter, and attended 
the meetings of that persuasion some months, where he paid no at- 
tention to the worship, but muttered to himself, smelled his Bible, and 
pricked himself with pins or needles to the effusion of his blood. He 
demanded instant admission to the society on one occasion, and with 
violence. He went more than once to the meeting-house early in the 
morning, and was seen to kneel, and heard to invoke the Virgin Mary, 
while he wounded himself on both hands, and smeared the doors with 
his blood. 3. He had false perceptions, for he used to sit brushing away 
the flies with his hand for hours together, when there were no flies, 
and his landlady told him so. He had struggles in the night with 
witches, and was sometimes noisy, and heard to cry out " hand ajf. n 
4. He had an almost incredible appetite for food, usually devouring 
half a peck of potatoes at a meal, with one or two pounds of a bullock's 
liver, almost raw, and generally filthy, for he would never allow it to 
be cleaned. Immediately after this gross repast, he drank a quantity 
of coffee, and eat twopence or threepence worth of bread ! He some- 
times saved a few of his potatoes, and took them to bed with him to 
be eaten in the night. He habitually wounded his hands, wrists and 
arms with needles or pins, and if he went to bed without his weapons, 
he rose and came for them. The blood sometimes flowed copiously, 
dropping from his elbows when his arms were bare, and in this state 
he has sallied out into the lane where he lodged, brandishing a stick, 
and playing extravagant tricks, till the neighbours interfered and got 
the " daft creature," as they called him, taken care of. When asked 
why he ate his meat so raw and dirty, he said he liked the blood, and 
the meat with the suction in it. He farther sucked the blood from his 

19 



218 HOMICIDAL INSANITY. 

own wrist, after every two or three mouthfuls of his food. Lastly? 
his landlady had known him some years before, when there was no- 
thing in his appearance or manner differing from other men ; but 
when he came to her house, a few months before the murder, he was 
so much altered in appearance and manner, and so squalid, dirty, and 
ragged, that she did not know him till be had been twenty-four hours 
in the house. 

For a fortnight before the fatal act, Howison appears to have been 
wandering about the country, and no evidence of his state of mind 
during that period was obtained before the trial. The facts at - Cra- 
mond were, that he entered the village with a black handkerchief 
covering the lower part of his face, which was otherwise proved to 
have been long his practice, and, therefore, nothing was founded 
upon it as a concealment, a stick in his hand, and a book hanging 
from his wrist. He asked alms from several persons in the row of 
houses, without success ; was seen to enter Widow Geddes's cottage, 
and in a very brief space to corne out hurriedly, shut the door after 
him, and run from the village, quickening his pace when he thought 
himself observed. One witness heard the sound of a blow, which he 
callea a chap, to come From i.he cottage, when Howison was in it, and 
the moment before he came out. He was apprehended next morn- 
ing some miles from King's Cramond ; was quite composed, denied all 
knowledge of the murder, and even of having been at King's Cra- 
mond the day before. In this denial he persisted to the last, making 
one uniform answer, both before and after his trial, " Nobody saw me 
do it." 

Upon these indicia the medical witnesses were called to give their 
opinions on the important question of the prisoner's sanity.* Dr. 
Spens and Mr. Watson were examined on the part of the prosecu- 
tion. They were also called for the prisoner, who besides adduced 
Drs. Macintosh, John Scott, and VV. P. Alison. 

" Mr. Alexander Watson, surgeon, as a witness for the prose- 
cution, reads and depones to a report on the body. Saw prisoner ; 
he answered questions correctly, and with consideration. Seemed 
to witness of sound mind, but of low and weak intellect, but showed 
no indication of insanity. His reason was, that on taxing the priso- 
ner with the crime, he denied it, and said he knew nothing about it, 
which, if he is guilty, witness would consider an indication to sanity. 
Has had occasion to see a great variety of insane patients, Prisoner 
told him the pricking of his hands was for a complaint in his head ; 
he said there was occasionally pain and uneasy feeling in his head. Wit- 
ness examined his head ; saw nothing wrong ; saw the prisoner prick 
his hands with a pin or needle. 

" Cross-examined. — There was no appearance whatever of the prison- 
er's simidating insanity. Thinks if he were guilty and insane, he 
would have confessed." 

* The medical gentlemen were not permitted to remain in Court to bear the evi- 
dence for the prosecution, a course for which I am unable to conjecture a reason 
The facts were read to each by the presiding judge, from his notes. ' The medical 
evidence given here is printed from very accurate notes, taken by Mr. Dun, W. S. 
She ageut for the prisoner. 



HOMICIDAL INSANITY. 219 

*• Dr. Spens, as a witness for the prosecution. Certificate of pri- 
soner being fit for judicial examination. Saw no insanity nor idiot- 
ism. Prisoner did not appear of a particularly low class of intellect : 
has seen him for the last three days, for the purpose of ascertaining his 
sanity." 

Medical Evidence for the Prisoner. 

" Dr. John Macintosh. — From the evidence he has heard read, 
said there are so many shades of insanity that a medical man is diffi- 
culted before a jury. What common people would call insanity, he 
might call sanity. As a medical witness he must look at all the facts. 
From all the peculiarities (details them), and, above all, wishing to 
change his religion, would have considerable- doubts of such a man's 
sanity, supposing he had never seen the man. But supposing he had 
seen him, as he had seen the prisoner, and watched the motion of his 
eyes, as he has done, he is still more inclined to say, such a person ought 
not to be allowed to go at large,\and is dangerous to others. From 
his experience of diseases of the mind, thinks such a person could not 
be depended upon any one moment. Has seen a good deal of insanity, 
and has attended minutely to every case which he has seen, and finds 
a great number of shades of the disease ; and from what he has seen 
of common people, they sometimes think a man in a delirium is mad, 
while at other times, what a medical man would confine a person for, 
they consider only silly or foolish. Sometimes the imagination only 
is disordered, while the reason may remain sound. Sometimes the 
moral feelings are deranged, and a man is inclined to change his re- 
ligion, and this is a very common, occurrence wnen a man is labouring 
under mental disease. Disorder in his mind makes him have this 
tendency, but the change does not make him mad. Sometimes one 
feeling is deranged, sometimes more. Perceptions may be diseased 
in another, and reason is embarrassed when one or more of these is 
deranged ; when several of these concur, he does not consider such a 
man to be safely at large. Always looks at adequate motive, along 
with other things, to enable him to judge of the sanity or insanity of 
an act. Decidedly in this case it was the effect of a morbid state of the 
mind, while an ordinary observer could not tell any particular marks 
of insanity. Has repeatedly seen people who were absolutely insane 
in conduct, sensible in conversation and writing: Folie raisonnante. 
Has been in the profession for twenty-five years, and has been in 
the way of studying mental disease. Has written and lectured on 
insanity. 

" Cross examined by Solicitor-General. — Does not think much 
of the prisoner's attachment to the cat by itself. Has frequently seen 
insane persons fondest of children. Change of religion a symptom, 
taken with others. Inadequate motive a strong point. Thinks rea- 
son occasionally diseased, but not nearly so often as feelings. Is 
firmly of opinion that at times pannel did not know moral right from 
w. -ng. As to his running away, witness has known as strong cases 
of flight and concealment in the insane. 

" Dr. John ScoTT.-*-Since 1813 in practice. Has paid consider- 
able attention to insanity. Feels difficulty in this case. Considers 



220 HOMICIDAL INSANITY. 

that no direct act of insanity has been proved ; but, taking all the 
ciicumstances together, his opinion is, that pannel is of a weak and 
unsound mind. Believes there are cases when persons insane in ac- 
tion who are invariably sensible in conversation. Knows that in 
authors on insanity there is recognised a sudden morbid impulse to commit 
murder. Most frequently some motive is imagined; but there are 
some cases where no possible motive could be imagined. Known 
cases where the murderer has been aware that murder is a crime, 
and has warned those about him to take themselves out of the way. 
Even when perceptions of right and wrong are not indicated, thi3 
occurs. Esquirol is considered a great authority. A patient may be 
possessed of the homicidal monomania, without any morbid appear- 
ance. Mothers destroying their children, and feeling inclinations to 
do so. Pinel, also a great authority, believes he was the first who 
described this impulse accurately. Georget, a high authority, states 
the same. It is now admitted generally by the profession. His 
opinion is founded on the whole case. He never spoke to the pri- 
soner. Has seen nothing which makes him think pannel does not 
know right from wrong, and was likely to cut off a man's head with- 
out knowing he was doing wrong. An insane man generally con- 
fesses, but would not infer either sanity or insanity from the running 
away, concealment, &c. A patient may commit murder, and imme- 
diately afterwards consciousness return. But we must always have 
some other proof of insanity. If the person was under restraint, he 
thinks he would know his situation and be cautious, and he the 
witness would place no confidence in the opinion of a medical 
man who had visited him so. Thinks his looks are more cunning 
than insane. Cunning is very common with the insane, and they 
can contrive ingenious schemes," 

Dr. Thomas Spens. — " Does not think conversation with a per- 
son, in confinement, without knowing something of his previous his- 
tory, would enable one altogether to form an opinion on insanity. 
Confinement modifies symptoms — change from full to spare diet. 
There are cases of insanity where it cannot be detected in conversa- 
tion. The prisoner seems to have laboured under a degree of mental 
derangement while at Mrs. Crombie's. Thinks he convalesced before 
the murder. Knows there are cases of sudden impulse leading to murder, 
the person very soon after becoming sensible that he had done wrong. 
Cunning is not absolutely exclusive of insanity. Absence of motive is an 
important consideration. Wandering about the country is not favour- 
able to convalescence. Knows no case of such an instantaneous re- 
covery as half a minute. Never saw any thing about prisoner's eyes 
like madness." 

Mr. Watson, Surgeon. — " Taking all circumstances into conside- 
ration, thinks that there has been no evidence of the prisoner's insa- 
nity at the time of the murder, and immediately after it. There are 
dight indications of insanity at a previous period, i.e. when he was at 
Mrs. Crombie's. But he was not in a state of decided insanity. 
Thinks his mind was in such a state that he was not to be depended 
upon." 

Dr. W. P. Alison. — " Thinks it an exceedingly nice case, and 
difficult to say waat was the state of the pannel's mind. There is w* 



HOMICIDAL INSANITY. 221 

appearance of his having simulated madness or assumed any fictitious cha- 
racter. Thinks there is evidence that he was of unsound mind in 
several respects previously. There are cases of partial insanity, 
there are also cases of morbid determination to acts of violence, in per- 
sons otherwise partially iyisane. This may co-exist with consciousness 
of crime. It is a hallucination which believes what is only imagined. 
There is no evidence whether or not this was the case with the pri- 
soner at the time of the murder, but thinks it likely, from his previous 
conduct, that such a delusion may have existed. Does not consider his 
conduct afterwards any evidence that he did not labour under some 
delusion at the time he committed the act. Speaks from general 
knowledge of partial insanity. There are cases where madmen are 
very cunning in screening themselves from the consequences of such a 
crime. He was struck with the circumstance of the prisoner's com- 
mitting a murder with a Bible tied round his wrist, and with his cere- 
monies against, the witches. May possibly have imagined the de- 
ceased a witch. Interrogated, Suppose an act committed under a 
delusion, will no statement be made by criminal in reference to such 
delusion? Thinks it quite possible, and that he might afterwards 
conceal it. Has seen patients who have laboured, to his knowledge, 
under delusion, and all his exertions could not induce them to let out 
any thing in reference to it. The concealment and denial are quite con- 
sistent with insanity. 

There are three motives which lead the sane to murder; revenge, 
cupidity, or precaution. None of these could impel the unhappy 
Howison. The existence of the old woman was unknown to him till 
the moment of the murder ; — he took nothing from the house, although 
there was money open in a cup ; — and he had nothing to conceal by 
the woman's death, previous to inflicting it upon her. 

The Court and Jury held that John Howison was a responsible 
agent, and he was condemned to death. In the argument against 
him, the possibility of a sudden resentment on being refused charity 
was held to furnish motive for the slaughter, dreadful as it was ; — in 
other words, that a helpless unoffending aged woman had the power, 
either by refusing him alms, or any other manner or way whatever, in 
one half minute, to provoke a sane man to such a pitch of fury as to 
lead him to glut his vengeance by cleaving her head in two. The 
homicidal monomania, as a specific insanity, probably for the first 
time pleaded in a British Court of Law, though now more familiar to 
the French tribunals, was, as might be expected with the present 
lights, treated as a groundless theory- 

With due deference to the verdict of a British Jury, I cannot help 
observing that, on the indicia aciually proved, and held of them- 
selves to amount to disease of mind by all the medical witnesses, 
even without the probabilities which were added by several of them, 
especially Dr. Alison, of the existence of decided dangerous madness, 
there were grounds, on Baron Hume's view of such questions, for a 
recommendation to mercy. Juries take this course in much weaker 
cases ; we hear of it every day on account of youth, seduction by the 
more guilty, and even strong provocation. Had Howison's act been 
les3 horrible, had it chanced, that, instead of dashing out the brains 
19* 



222 HOMICIDAL INSANITY. 

of a helpless aged woman, he had only made an assault on a stout 
man, to the effusion of his blood; and moreover, had any medical 
man whatever previously given a certificate, as ought to have been 
done, that he was or might be dangerous, on which he had been de 
facto shut up for a season, no one, we take it, will doubt that his state 
of mind, as actually proved, would have moved the Jury to recom- 
mend him to mercy. 

Application was made, without success, to the Secretary of State, 
by Howison's law agent, for time to obtain further evidence of his in- 
sanity. To this that gentleman was emboldened by receiving the 
concurring opinion of several of the first medical men in Edinburgh, 
who had not been cited, that even the evidence adduced on the trial 
was sufficient ; but that, when several post-judicial facts were added, 
there could be no doubt that the unhappy man was not a fit subject 
for punishment These last mentioned facts were, first,— That some 
time before his appearance at King's Cramond, Howison, on being 
refused alms by a gentleman near Edinburgh, to whose house he 
came, he made a savage assault upon him, for his muscular strength 
was very great, often the case with maniacs, seized him by the scro- 
tum, and kept his hold till the gentleman had nearly fainted. His 
whole demeanour was frightfully ferocious, and he was knocked down 
by one of the farm servants before he quitted his grasp. When de- 
livered from his great peril, the gentleman soothed his assailant, gave 
him food, and sent him quietly away. Again, a gentleman of Dundee, 
made affidavit that he was one of the directors of the Lunatic Asylum 
in, that town, and accustomed to observe insanity. That being in 
Edinburgh a short time before the Cramond murder, he chanced to 
go one day to witness the mode of worship at the Gluaker's meeting, 
his wife and daughter being with him. Near the place he saw Howi- 
son on the street in a mood so excited, violent and threatening, that 
he looked about for aid from the police, in the event, which he almost 
expected, of an attack or an outrage ; and expressed his surprise that 
so dangerous a person was not taken care of. This affidavit was 
transmitted to the Secretary of State.* 

These were the additional facts which had they been permitted to be 
brought forward, although too late to prevent the sentence, might 
have prevented the execution. The Society of Friends petitioned the 
King ; but mercy, and even further inquiry, were refused. 

The closing scene of all, afforded a powerful confirmation of the 
sounder opinion that this unhappy man was insane. He confessed, 
the night before his execution, eight murders not one of which had 
ever been heard of, or could have occurred unknown. It cannot be 
doubted that this was the bloody dream of a homicidal monomaniac. 
At parting with the deputy-governor of the jail, he avowed that he felt 
at that moment a stong impulse to .murder him, and he had been most 
kind to him ; while in the same breath, he inveighed against his 
lawyers for not resting his defence on the defectiveTevidence, as he 
viewed it, of the murder, but pleading that he was mad, which, as he 

* Since Howison's execution, several persons have come forward who knew him 
long, and never doubted of his derangement. 



HOMICIDAL INSANITY. 223 

alleged, was utterly untrue.* His voracious appetite for food ceased 
only with his breath. 

The ground upon which Howison's plea of insanity failed, no 
doubt was that he did not prove insanity enough ; — that, at the most, 
he had proved what Baron Hume holds insufficient, namely, eccen- 
tricity, a crazy or irregular temper — in a word only, partial derange- 
ment. 

It is here the judicial practice requires revision. If it be true, that 
there is none of the phenomena of yet imperfectly understood human 
nature, over which hangs a thicker veil, to the general eye, than the 
phenomena of mental aberration, what are we to think of making 
distinctions as if all were clear, between partial and total insanity, and 
drawing the line of responsibility with perfect confidence ! It is hum- 
bly but earnestly suggested, that, instead of deciding for responsi- 
bility in partial insanity, it is both more just and more merciful to 
doubt as to that essential, when disease of mind to a palpable 
and considerable amount is proved. It is more just and more 
merciful, in such a case, to take care of the accused and of society by 
his confinement, than to run the risk of putting to death an irrespon- 
sible agent. Insanity, as far as we have the means of perceiving, is 
a bodily disease ; in other words, its visible and invariable condition 
is a morbid action of the brain, either structural or functional. A de- 
finition of the effect, in feeling and manifestation of a diseased brain, 
which shall be sufficiently comprehensive to include all the varieties 
of insane affection, is scarcely to be looked for ; yet definitions are 
constantly sought after in courts of law, and the whole value of a wit- 
ness's evidence is often made to turn on its relation to a standard, 
which is in itself the merest assumption. It would be a safer rule for 
courts of law,t to direct their attention to the proof generally of dis- 
eased manifestations of the intellect or feelings ; and when these are 
undoubted, as in Howison's case, to presume irresponsibility, because 
the contrary cannot be made sure of, and the balance of probability 
is greatly on the side of irresponsibility. If mercy, as we have said, is 
often extended to youth, to seduction, even to great provocation, how 
much more ought it to shelter disease of mind when clearly establish- 
ed? If it be true, and no physician denies it, that to diseases, espe- 
cially of the inflammatory class, it is impossible to describe limits, or 
to predict that new and aggravated symptoms shall not'suddenly follow 
in the course of the diseased action ; is it not presuming too much to 
decide, that inflammation of the brain, a usual cause of insanity, has 
known boundaries, and shall not suddenly extend from partial to pro- 
duce total insanity ? We feel assured that no one conversant with 
insanity will deny the fact,- that the insane, however partially, .are 
not safe from sudden paroxysms and aggravation of symptoms. 

* It is proper here to observe, that the legal defenders of Howison had hi? sanc- 
tion for their liue of defence, lie said, in substance, " do as you like." But sup- 
posing, as often happens, that a palpably insane person asserts his sanity, and 
disclaims the plea of insanity, it is nevertheless bis counsel's duty to make the 
• Court aware of the state of the prisoner's mind, and to be prepared with evidence, 
which it is pars judicis to call for, if the criminal fact shall be proved. 

t We mean criminal courts, for the inquiry as affecting civil rights and capabili- 
ties, where punishment— capital punishment— is not impending, may and must be 
tried like other civil questions, by nicer scales. 









224 HOMICIDAL INSANITY. 

In Howison's case, all the five medical witnesses swear to dis- 
ease of mind; even Dr. S pens and Mr. Watson admit this, — the 
latter adding, that the prisoner's mind was in such a state, that he was 
not to be depended upon. This is another mode of expression for as- 
serting that the disease proved to exist might increase, and the pa- 
tient become unsafe and irresponsible. This is well brought out in 
Dr. Andrew Combe's late work on insanity, page 23. " In civil and 
in criminal trials, physicians have been called in to fix the line of de- 
marcation between insanity and the minor forms of mental disease ; 
but in practice the attempt has never been attended with great suc- 
cess. If the principles we have been advocating be true, this must 
ever continue to be the case. In no organ of the body, however inti- 
mately we may be acquainted with its structure and functions, can 
we always chalk out a marked line of distinction between the various 
affections to which it is liable. The slightest kinds ,run by such 
imperceptible degrees into the more permanent and severe, that we 
are daily unable to determine the point at which the malady stands, 
and it is often by the event alone, that we are enabled to form an ac- 
curate opinion. Many cases are, no doubt, so unequivocally marked, 
that we have no hesitation in determining the extent and nature of the 
disease. But it is not always an easy matter. For, at one time, an 
affection apparently of a trivial kind suddenly assumes the destruc- 
tive energy of a deadly disease." " Ths brain being a constituent part 
of an organized frame, and subjected to all the laws of animal life, 
exactly as the other parts of the system are, its morbid affections pre- 
sent precisely the same characteristics, modified of course by its pe- 
culiarity of structure and function, and it is very important, for the 
proper understanding of its diseases, that this analogy should be kept 
in view." After enumerating several examples of change in the 
symptoms of mental derangement, the author says, " A fifth (indi- 
vidual) may, under strong excitement, give way to manifestations of 
passion and singularities of thought, which we are accustomed to 
meet with only in insanity, and yet recover himself when the cause 
has ceased to operate ; or if he be highly predisposed, and the excite- 
ment have been very powerful, he may make a sudden transition 
from perfect health of mind to decided madness. But no one can pre- 
tend to point out the exact line at which the one of these states merges into 
the other." This shows the dangerous error of the notion, that there 
is no madness liable to sudden paroxysms, unless violence is habit- 
ually or very frequently present. The celebrated Pinel, who was 
chief physician to the Salpetriere, the greatest hospital for the insane 
in the world, gives many examples of dangerous insanity co-existing 
with a calm and rational exterior, and in which the patient is the very 
reverse of a free and responsible agent. He mentions an instance of 
a rational madman liberated, on his own showing, by a band of revo- 
lutionists in 1792, who came to judge who were properly confined in 
the different madhouses in Paris. Their protege soon showed them 
their error for, excited by the scene, he seized one of their sabres, and, 
striking at all about him, wounded a number of his very deliverers, 
who were glad to take him back to his cell. 

Howison was proved to have exhibited, what is almost invariable 
in insanity, a complete change of character from his former self— a 



HOMICIDAL INSANITY. 225 

great deterioration in appearance, manners, and habits. He .was 
farther proved to have several peculiar habits and practices, each re- 
cognised as a specific madness. 1. He had an almost incredible ap- 
petite for food. Of this many instances in the insane could be fur- 
nished, some cases manifesting no other symptom. The sight of food 
renders them furious ; they will dispute it with the dogs and the 
swine ; they gorge the stomach beyond all powers of digestion, call- 
ing incessantly for more, and thereby injure all the other functions, 
including those of the brain 'itself. A man was taken into the Infir- 
mary of Edinburgh in December 1830,raving mad for food, his stomach 
being distended with the quantity he had eaten, neveitheless his only 
cry was, "hunger, hunger, hunger !" Starvation has often produced 
insanity in those previously sane, as is well known in shipwrecks, and 
as was tremendously exemplified in that of the Medusa French fri- 
gate. With his morbid calls for food, it .is quite conceivable, that 
Howison might be excited to a high pitch of destructive mania, by a 
few hours' want. 2. He ate animal food in large quantity almost 
raw, delighting in the blood which came from it. This, too, is 5 a well- 
marked .symptom of insanit} 7 . A shocking case cf literal appetite for 
blood occurred at Paris in 1S23. Antoine Leger was from his youth, 
sombre, ferocious, and solitary. He fled the society of women, and 
of boys of his own age. Wandering in a wood for days together, 
and living on wild fruits, he caught' a rabbit, killed it, and devoured 
it raw. He was seized with a horrible desire to eat human flesh, and 
drink the blood. On the 10th of August he saw a little girl, and run- 
ning to her, passed a handkerchief round her body, threw her on his 
back, rushed into the wood, and murdered her. He avowed the fact to 
the minutest particular, and produced proofs against himself. He 
stated that, having opened the body of his victim, and seeing the blood 
flow in abundance, he slaked with it his thirst, and, " hurried on by 
the malign influence that controlled me," he said, " I went the length 
of sucking the heart." He was calm, rational, and even indifferent 
at his trial, and was given over to the executioner, a sacrifice to the 
ignorance of his judges, who could see nothing in him but the most 
atrocious criminal. 3. Howison, like maniacs well known in mad» 
houses, was almost without ceasing, night and day, wounding him- 
self to the effusion of his blood ; he marked the chapel door-posts 
with it ; he exhibited it dropping from his elbows ; and he sucked it 
as he ate his meals. 4. He was solitary, silent, and sombre, like 
Lecouffe, Feltdmann, Papavoin, and Leger, and a whole class of 
madmen. Indeed, he was so uncommunicative, that his counsel 
could not draw from him one word of his history or connexions, 
in order to enlarge the evidence of his insane habits. Lastly, he was 
under the influence of superstitious horrors, and kept off the super- 
natural evils he dreaded by strange ceremonies, and above all, by the 
fancied protection of the Bible tied round his wrist, which it was 
proved he never read, and, when removed at his meals, placed round 
his neck, so as never to quit his person. This circumstance struck 
Dr. Alison as an insane accompaniment of a murder. 

Now, this is just the character of insanity, which, often by a sud 
den and uncontrollable impulse, sheds blood and takes life. Thi* 
impulse itself is a specific monomania, which the French physician?* 






226 HOMICIDAL INSANITY. 

who have seen it oftenest, denominate monomanic homicide. All the 
medical witnesses, including the two who did not consider Howison 
irresponsible, were in the knowledge that there is a specific madness 
of this .fearful character. Nothing more important has been deter- 
mined by the more enlightened views of insanity, which are begin- 
ning to prevail, than the existence and nature of distinctive monoma- 
nias, in which the patient is insane only on feelings or ideas related 
to one of the mental powers, and remains sound as to the objects and 
functions of all his other faculties. Diseased pride, for example, is a 
monomania, and fills the mad-houses, often more than any other dis- 
eased feeling, with great lords, kings, and emperors, most of whom 
are sane on every other point ; and even, in their peculiar disease, 
from the erroneous premises of their supposed condition reason cor- 
rectly. When the monomania of pride takes a religious turn, the 
patient believes himself inspired, and sometimes even the Supreme 
Being. Of twenty-two patients presented to a gentleman who lately 
visited the great Richmond Lunatic Asylum of Dublin, eleven were 
insane on pride ; some of these with religious feelings believed them- 
selves God, Jesus Christ, or inspired by them : whilst others, with- 
out religious feelings, were kings and emperors.. Many of the same 
patients were violent and destructive; and several others had no 
symptoms but an impulse to tear and destroy every thing upon 
which they could lay their hands. Such patients are the most dan- 
gerous of any, as they invariably murder if they are not under re- 
straint. 

Murder committed under such an unhappy influence is not a crime 
but a symptom of insanity. Dr. Marechal, in the Archives Gene- 
rales de Medecine, vol. xii., instances the deplorable case of a lady, 
who, after having nursed her infant for three months, suddenly be- 
canis gad and taciturn, and much addicted to tears. One day sitting 
near the fire, she exclaimed with eagerness and agony, " Snatch the 
child from me, or I will throw it into the flames. " 'She then confessed 
that, for a long time, she had been struggling against an almost irre- 
sistible impulse to destroy the child, and that on approaching a win- 
dow or fire the desire always returned. She became melancholy, 
lamented her unhappy propensity, and attempted suicide. Her reason 
was perfect, and she was inspired with horror at herself. Of course, 
from the state of light generally prevailing on the subject, had she 
killed her child she would have been held responsible, because of her 
reason and remorse, and condemned to death, instead of being put un^ 
der treatment as a lunatic. 

Dr, Otto of Copenhagen has lately communicated a striking in- 
stance of motiveless destruction, perpetrated under the influence of 
this dreadful disease, where all the feelings which should lead the un- 
happy patient to stay his hand, were, at the same time, in full activity. 
Peter Nielson, the father of seven children, was seized with a desire, 
which he felt he could not resist, to destroy four of his children, whom, 
nevertheless, he tenderly loved. He took them to a turf-pit, and after, 
passionately embracing them, pushed them all into the water, and re- 
mained till he saw them drowned. When they were taken out he 
kissed them again, and returned quietly to the town, in the same 
part which brought back their dead bodies, He made no attempt tQ 



HOMICIDAL INSANITY. 227 

fly ; but Dr. Otto omits to say what criminal result followed. Dr. 
Otto furnishes another instance of this sudden propensity to murder. 
Frederick Jensen lost his health of mind, in consequence of the death 
of a beloved daughter ; and, soon after, when one day walking with 
his son, a boy of ten years of age, was seized, as he related, with a 
strange confusion, " so that it appeared to him like a matter of absolute 
necessity to drown the boy and himself;" and, quite unconscious of what 
he was doing, he ran to the water with the boy in his hand. A per- 
son passing interfered, and took the child from him ; but he threw 
himself into the water, from which he was rescued, and, by proper 
treatment, restored to health of mind. He subsequently told the 
whole event with tranquillity, but could give no reason for the sudden 
desire to destroy his child and himself. A case closely resembling this 
but with the unhappy difference, that the -dreadful deed was done, 
occurred in November last in the vicinity of Edinburgh. The maniac 
was George Waters, who destroyed a boy, his own son, without mo- 
tive or end, and threw the body into a ditch. On proof of previous 
derangement, he was ordered into confinement. 

I could adduce many authorities, entitled to the highest respect 
from their known experience and eminence, both on the Continent 
and at home, that the homicidal monomania is often a sudden and irre- 
sistible impulse. Pinel, Broussais, Georget, Esquirol, and Spurz- 
heim, in France, — and Burrows, Conolly and Combe, in this country, 
are all agreed on the existence and nature of this most dangerous 
insanity. 

Broussais has a chapter on this subject in his work, De I'Irritation 
et de la Folie, page 361. " There result," says he, " from this per- 
version of feeling, cruelty, pleasure in destroying, an impulse con- 
demned even by the patient who is under its influence. This per- 
version, and that of suicide, are often found together. The unfor- 
tunate patients often find pretexts to justify their atrocities. Some- 
times it is a voice which commands the slaughter; sometimes God 
himself; some have a mission from heaven to save men by the bap- 
tism of blood ; others think they secure the salvation of their children, 
or make them angels by putting them to death." 

Georget, also a high medical officer in the Salpetriere, is familiar 
with the " monomunie mem trier e." "It consists in a propensity to 
ferocity, in a desire, in a necessity to destioy life, "even human life, 
without motive." Georget's work De la Folie, p. 110. 

Pinel, the highest French authority, among other instances, men- 
tions a patient in the Bicetre, who was brought to that great lunatic 
hospital, in consequence of a sudden fit having seized him in his own 
house, when he warned his wife, whom he loved, to fly from him, to 
avoid instant death. In the Bicetre, when the fit came on, he seized 
any sharp instrument, and would, unless prevented, have sacrificed 
any one near him. The superintendent, whom he at other times 
loaded wilh acknowledgements for his kindness, was especially the 
object of his sanguinary threats; and he would have destroyed him- 
self if permitted, an act which he had once nearly accomplished with 
a shoemaker's knife, having been secured, after giving himself a deep 
wound. "He enjoys," says Pinel, " in other respects perfect exercise 



228 HOMICIDAL INSANITY. 

of reason ; even during his paroxysms he answers questions, and lets 
slip no incoherences or signs of delirium : he even feels all the hor- 
ror of his situation, and is penetrated with remorse, as if he had him- 
self to reproach for his dreadful propensity."— Traite" sur 1' Alienation 
Mentale, p. 158. 

M. Georget devotes a small volume to the subject, and furnishes 
many examples. A woman of the name of Ny consulted him, in 
October 1826, evidently healthy and rational, whose irresistible pro- 
pensity was to murder her children. She abhorred herself for the 
feeling, avoided windows and sharp weapons, often fled the house, 
&c. By proper medical treatment this woman was cured. "Sup- 
pose," says M. Georget, " a little increase of intensity in that in- 
voluntary impulse, and the woman Ny would have committed, 
against her nature, the most horrible of crimes." 

M. Esquirol, the pupil of Pin el, wrote a treatise on the subject, in 
which he furnishes many instances. One lunatic suddenly rose upon 
his fellow patients in the hospital, murdered two, and was proceeding, 
as he said, to baptize them all in blood, when he was mastered and 
secured. He had before murdered his own children for the same end, 
and attempted to kill his wife. A woman returned from a fanatical 
sermon, and murdered her child to make it an angel. A Prussian 
peasant believed himself commanded by an angel from heaven to 
sacrifice his only son on an altar. Pie bound him accordingly, and 
immolated him. M. N., a patient at Charenton, was melancholy, 
sad, and silent, and believed harmless, till suddenly he sprung upon 
one of his neighbours, struck him with the heaviest article on which 
he could lay hands, and attempted to murder him, after which he 
sunk again into silence and melancholy. Another exactly similar in- 
stance occurred, the weapon being a full bottle. An insane was dis- 
missed cured, as was believed, who next day murdered his wife and 
sister-in-law. A young married lady was suddenly seized with an 
irresistible desire to murder her two infant children ; she loved and 
embraced, yet longed to strangle them. On one occasion one of her 
children came into the room where she herself was alone ; she im- 
mediately gave the alarm, and bad the child removed. She was se- 
cluded for some months, and on her return was not allowed to see 
her children, although she inquired affectionately for them. When it 
was proposed to bring them home, her countenance altered in such 
a way as to convince her husband that it was not yet time. Several 
months more were allowed to elapse, after which her children were 
brought back, and she ever after manifested towards them the truest 
maternal tenderness. Another example of the same kind. In this 
was the singular mixture of the embraces of passionate affection and 
the propensity to strangle the child, with several attempts at suicide, 
because of the unhappy propensity. Several other examples follow 
of unhappy mothers with the impulse to destroy their children. One 
of a nursery maid, in the family of Baron Humboldt, who found that 
she never undressed a child under her charge without a wish to kill 
it. She fortunately avowed the propensity, and was taken care of. 
A young lady came regularly, when she felt the appetite for murder 
coming on, and had herself secured in a strait-waistcoat till the fit 



HOMICIDAL INSANITY. 229 

"was past. A gentleman in the same circumstances felt himself suf- 
ficiently restrained by having his thumbs tied together with a piece of 
ribbon. 

M. N. was silent and solitary, but reasonable, and confessed a de- 
sire to shecT blood, and particularly that of his mother and sister by 
the poniard. He, too, deplored the dreadful tendency, for he loved 
his mother and sister tenderly. Yet the fit returned, and he cried 
out, " Mother, save yourself, or I will cut your throat" One day in 
the street he met a Swiss soldier, a stranger to him, whose sabre he 
attempted to seize, to murder him with it. 

Madame C. G., a young married woman, was suddenly seized 
with a desire to kill, and had reason and feeling enough to deplore 
the propensity; but the more she resisted it, the more strong it be- 
came. 

Madame G„ was seized with the murderous fit at table, and took 
up a knife to indulge the desire, when she was secured and disarmed. 
A young woman of the name of Henriette Cornier, murdered her in- 
fant in a fit of insanity, and cut off its head. The affair made a great 
noise in France ; and the same thing was done by a number of other 
monomaniacs mentioned by M. Esquirol ;* but as they are all to the 
same purpose, they ne.:d not be enumerated here. One woman said 
that something pushed her on by the shoulders to murder. A num- 
ber of similar cases were communicated from Germany, by different 
medical men, to M. Esquirol. 

The existence as a specific madness of the homicidal monomania, 
like other new truths, has been vigorously controverted in Prance. — 
A whole volume has been written against it, as a doctrine full of dan- 
ger, by an advocate of the name of Regnault. It is a conceited, 
irrelevant, unphilosophical rhapsody, and does nothing to shake the 
mass of facts on which the doctrine is built. 

Hoffbaur is the greatest German authority, and was translated 
into French in 1829, by Chambeyron. He advocates the doctrine of 
homicidal mononx - 1 furnishes many cases. 

Till the very rect^i appearance of Drs. Burrows and Conolly, the 
latter professor of medicine in the University of London, as writers on. 
insanity, and their works are of the highest authority. — no British 
writer took prominent notice of the homicidal monomania. Dr. 
Combe also describes, and satisfactorily accounts for, this form of 
mental disease. Willis, Haslam, and others, cite crises of patients 
murdering, if not restrained, as a mere effect of excited maniacal rage ; 
but none of these have mentioned the existence of sudden irresistible 
propensity to shed blood as a specific monomania. 

Dr. Burrows gives some cases of persons committing murder, in 
order that they themselves might suffer death, — suicide by crime. 
A schoolmaster at New-York reasoned on the subject, and on the 
idea that infancy has a "guarantee of eternal beatification," look a 
gun and shot a child only three years of age, and afterwards went 
and voluntarily delivered himself into the hands of justice, p. 436. 

* The numerous murders which often follow each other ahout the same time, 
-cannot have escaped observation. They are almost always the work of mono- 
maniacs, excited by the narratives that are necessarily made public. Georget and 
iDelaplace make this observation. 

20 



230 HOMICIDAL INSANITY. 

Br, Burrows, p. 437, speaks of persons destroying themselves iipQn 
returning from the funerals of friends, who had committed suicide ; and 
says, " we often hear of such acts committed instant er by low and illi- 
terate people, who appear so to have done on the most trivial motives.' 7 

Same page. " Many instances occur in modern history of pro- 
pensities to homicide and infanticide, as well as to suicide, which ap- 
pear to result from no other cause than the force of example." 

Ibid. "In a late sitting of the French Academy of Medicine, 
several examples were reported by MM. Barbier, Mare, Bricheteau, 
Esquirol, Villerine, Ballis, and Costel, completely establishing this 
fact." Reference is made to Esquirol, in Medico-Chir. Jour. vol. ix„ 
p. 226, as mentioning " six cases occurring of persons being seized with 
the prosensity to destroy their children, since the trial of Madame 
Cornier for that crime." Costel gives a still more remarkable illus- 
tration " A soldier having hung himself on a post? his example was 
followed in a very short time by twelve other invalid soldiers ; when 
the post was removed, this suicidal epidemic ceased." 

Various other examples, page 438, &c., as among the British sol- 
diers at Malta, a few years after it was taken possession of. The 
women of Lyons were seized with a propensity to suicide, by throwing 
themselves down the wells of that city. 1300 people destroyed them- 
selves at Versailles in 1793 ; and in Rouen, in 1806, epidemic suicide 
prevailed during June and July. Burrows speaks of " national taste" 
as to the mode ; "the English prefer shooting, the Prussian hanging, 
while the French, fond of effect in all things, show it even in this last 
act, and prefer making an exit from some elevated cr conspicuous 
place, such as a high column, monument, or bridge, the time mid-day? 
and in the presence of a multitude. This is the ne plus ultra, and 
gives great eclat to the character of the suicide." 

He proceeds. ' "Even murderers have their peculiar tastes in exe- 
cuting their dreadful deeds. The atrocious Williamson attacked 
unsuspecting and defenceless persons in the dead of the night, and 
beat out their brains with a poker or bill-hook. The murders of Mr. 
and Mrs. Bonar, of Mr. Perkins and his housekeeper, of Mr. Parker 
and his housekeeper, and of various others which have followed in ra- 
pid succession, were all perpetrated, and by different persons, under 
circumstances very analogous, and with similar implements." 

Dr. Conolly says, p. 338, " In this intellectual disorder, lunatics 
have committed atrocious crimes, feeling remorse even whilst com- 
mitting them : and others, fearing death from poison or from natural 
causes, have committed suicide ; whilst some, like the idiot mention- 
ed by Dr. Gall, have delighted in setting fire to houses, and have been 
seen to be equally glad to extinguish the fire when lighted. Assuredly 
it is no inconsiderable fact in support of the opinion of the propensities 
being located in different portions of the nervous substance, that we 
find individuals, not remarkable for inhumanity, seized with a sudden 
desire to murder and destroy. If, in some instances, we explain the 
propensity by the supposition of a morbid impression of a nature to ex- 
cite revenge, we see other instances in which it is indulged without 
any such object ; and man and wcman have cruelly murdered their 
relations, or even their own children, apparently impelled to such 
frightful crimes by a physical excitement, which was not extended to 



HOMICIDAL INSANITY. 231 

other propensities. The excitement is so strong a3 to exclude every 
opposing emotion, and to prevent the exercise of either the attention or 
memory ; and no comparison is made : the whole man is denomina- 
ted by one morbid feeling. The degree to which this feeling admits 
of resistance is often a very important question, inasmuch as it af- 
fects the responsibility of such individuals for the crimes which they 
commit. It appears in some cases, to be as little within the control 
of the patient, as the muscular movements are in a fit of hysteria or 
epilepsy," &c. &c. 

From those who justify Howison's condemnation, I expect this 
answer to all that has been said, on the homicidal monomania, namely, 
that it is one thing to establish, as it probably may come to be grant- 
ed has been done, that there is such an impulse, and another to show 
that Howison was actually possessed with it, when he clove in two 
the aged head of widow Geddes. Now, [concede at once that there 
is no direct and compl'ete evidence that Howison was a homicidal 
monomaniac at that, dreadful moment, as there would have been had 
the act been witnessed to have taken place without any or adequate 
provocation- All I contend for is, that, the impulse often coming on 
suddenly and irresistibly, the circumstances, render it so probable, as 
Dr. Alison said, that in Howison's case it did so, as to have made the 
consignment of the wretched man to a mad-house, in every view, the 
safer, the juster, and more expedient course to have followed. With 
all his previous superstitions, voracious, ferocious, and bloody habits, 
which every one conversant with insanity knows were just such impuls- 
es as might in a moment pass into homicidal mania, — to say nothing of 
his ferocious attack on the gentleman near Edinburgh, and the scene 
witnessed by the Dundee gentleman some time before, — Howison en- 
ters the cottage of a harmless old woman whom he had never seen, 
and in less time than a word of provocation could pass, and without 
assignable motive, beats out her brains. No one saw the degree of 
provocation, it is true ; but no one can believe in the possibility of 
adequate provocation to such an act, in. the circumstances, at all. 
The post-judicial evidence did not come out on the trial ; but it was 
offered to the Secretary of State ; and it is never too late to make far- 
ther inquiry which shall save the life of a wretched lunatic. 

It seems unnecessary to go into the argument founded on the alle- 
gation that Howison was intelligent, — that he fled with precipitation 
from the scene of his crime, and steadily denied it to the moment of 
his death, — in a word, manifested " method in his madness " I re- 
fer to the evidence of Dr. Alison on this point, and that of Drs. Mac- 
intosh and Scott, as at least of equal weight with that of Mr. Watson, 
who, because of the frequency of avowal by the murderous insane, 
seems to have concluded, that denial of the act is a certain proof of 
sanity. Pinel gives the name of folie raisonnante to madness accom- 
panied with rationality, and even skill in adapting means to ends. 
" Hospitals for the insane," says he, " are never without some exam- 
ples of mania, marked by acts of extravagance and even fury, with a 
kind of judgment preserved in all its integrity, if we judge of it'by the 
conversation ; the lunatic gives the most just and precise answers to 
the questions of the curious, no incoherence of ideas is discernible ; 
he reads and writes letters, as if his understanding were perfectly 
sound ; and yet, by a singular contrast, he tears in pieces his clothes 



232 HOMICIDAL INSANITY. 

and bed-covers, and always finds some plausible reason to justify his 
wanderingand his fury." Many instances of this inconsistency might 
be quoted^ and some in which the reasoning isjusterand more forcible 
in the exaltation of the disease than when the patient is in perfect 
health. Mead, Willis, Haslam, Cox, Burrows, Conolly, and Combe 
all concur in this, and agree with the French authorities. 

The reader must have observed the accompaniment of calmness, 
rationality, and even" remorse and self-reproach in several of the in- 
stances of murder, and attempts to murder, adduced in this paper. 
There is rationality and a perfect discrimination of right from wrong, 
not only in the abstract but in the very act, common in many murdering 
maniacs, which induces them to surrender themselves to justice. 
Howison fled, — in other words, instantly after the act he saw its con- 
sequences to himself. Robert Dean knew the consequence, only her 
courted death, the other feared it. Papavoin, like Howison, fled. In 
all the three, the murderous paroxysm had ceased ; and nothing can 
be imagined more likely to bring the feelings into a new channel, and 
that instantaneously, — with all deference to Dr. Spen's opinion,— 
than the spectacle of horror which the patient's own hand has produ- 
ced.* The patient anticipates the horror, in some cases, and warns 
the person near him, generally his beloved relatives, to fly, — to snatch 
away the child, &c. How much more may he not be appalled with 
the blood when actually shed,- -be seized with terror on his own ac- 
count, fly with precipitation, and deny with obstinacy, consistency, 
and cunning ? Dr. Spens said Howison could not have recovered 
from an insane paroxysm so suddenly, 01 rather that he, Dr. S., never 
saw an instance of such sudden restoration. So many others, with 
probably more extensive means of observation, consider an instant 
change of feeling, by a powerful cause, not only frequent, but. almost 
invariable. The maniac is ahoays calm after the slaughter is com- 
mitted ;' but Dr. Spens assumes that there could not be an instant 
change of feeling in Howison, and on that assumption concludes, 
that in truth he did not act under a paroxysm of lunacy at all. It is 
to be feared that this opinion weighed heavily in the adverse scale 
against this poor maniac. There is so much evil in the- very risk that 
man's vengeance should folloiv God's visitation, that all cases of crimes of 
violence, I repeat, in which previous mental disease is unequivocally proved, 
should have the lohde benefit of the presumption that such disease may in a 
moment run into irreponsible mania; and the unhappy patient be judged 
fit for confinement, and not for punishment. 

i cannot withhold an opinion of great good sense on this point, by 
Dr. Haslam, in his treatise on Medical Jurisprudence. After some 
severe observations on the practice of making a show of bedlam for 
the vulgar gaze, from which, he says, the idea is impressed even on 
juries, that " insanity cannot exist without turbulent expression, ex- 
travagant gestures, and fantastic decoration," he adds, " When the 
madman has been tried in a criminal court, the counsel for the prose- 
cution has usually and gravely inquired of the medical evidence, 

* A case occurred at Bristol much about the time of Howison's trial. A maniac 
killed a person on the spot for refusing- him a little tobacco. He fled, concealed, 
and even disguised himself with blacking and soot. When taken, he denied all 
knowledge of the murder, till brought to the dead body, when he coolly said, " \ 
killed that man because he would not give me some tobacco J* 



HOMICIDAL INSANITY. 233 

whether the prisoner, on ordinary topics, and on subjects unconnect- 
ed with his insanity, would not converse in a rational manner ; and 
also, whether he did not possess sufficient understanding to discrimi- 
nate between good and eviU right and wrong.' When a medical person 
is employed concerning any one to whom insanity is imputed, his 
principal inquiry is concerning his insanity ; it is not his object to as- 
certain how much reason he possesses, but how far, and on what 
topics, he is insane ; and having gauged his insanity, he has performed 
his duty. If it should be presumed that any medical practitioner is able 
to penetrate into the recesses of a lunatic's mind, at the moment he 
committed an outrage, to view the internal play of obtruding thought 
and contending motives, and to depose that he knew the good and 
evil, right and wrong, he was about to commit, it must be confessed 
that such knowledge is beyond the limits of our attainment. It is 
sufficient for the medical practitioner to know that the mind is deranged, 
and that such state of insanity ■will be sufficient to account for the irregularity 
of the actions ; and that, in a sound mind, the same conduct would be 
deemed criminal. If violence be inflicted by such a person during a 
paroxysm of rage, there is no acuteness of metaphysical investigation 
which can trace the succession of his thoughts, and the impulses by 
which he is goaded to the accomplishment of his purpose." 

In proposing confinement instead of capital punishment, I leave 
much to satisfy those who hold the opinion that the dread of conse- 
quences will restrain the maniac or monomaniac, even when the fit is 
on him. If capital punishment has preventive terrors, so has confine- 
ment for life. Nay, I am disposed to think that the latter, if either are 
contemplated, would have the greater premonitive effect of the two. 
Death is often courted by the murderous monomaniac. Execution 
has high excitement for the actual state of his feelings. But the idea 
of confinement for life is sedative, repulsive to the insane person's 
hurry of thought, and more likely than the fear of death, to make him 
reflect and stay his hand if he is not, when in paroxysm, incapable of 
reflection at all. 

The opinion promulgated by the Advocate-General of France in 
Lecouffe's case is yet greatly too common elsewhere, that the plea of 
insanity is dangerous; that it leads to encourage simulation, and defraud 
justice, and therefore ought not to be admitted at all in criminal trials. 
This, I have said, is not the law of Great Britain, nor is it that of 
Prance ; it is only the absurd dogma of the Advocate-General. But 
although, when stated in the abstract, it is certain of being scouted, 
yet in the concrete, the opinion has a sort of influence; so that the 
proof of insanity (which lies on the accused), instead of being wel- 
comed as it ought to be by our own criminal courts, is almost always 
as if it were mere matter of public duty to do so, received with hostility, 
and stoutly redargued. The reason of this is dread that simulated 
madness will always be resorted to, and public justice set at nought 
There will be an end of this fear, when knowledge of the real indicia 
of mental disease shall extend itself: courts of law, and jurymen them- 
selves, better taught what sane mind really is, will become more fa- 
miliar with its diseases ; and medical men be more worthy of the con- 
fidence of courts of law than the great majority of them yet are, 
while they remain equally uninformed in mental philosophy on the 
20* 



2M HtfMICIDAL INSANITY. 

one hand, and the functions of the material organ of the mind, the 
brain, on the other. I feel assured that there is not one of the au- 
thorities, French or British, whom I have quoted as advocating the 
truth of homicidal monomania, whom pretended insanity would de- 
ceive for one moment. The simulator must have at least all their 
knowledge, and be a consummate actor to boot; not to betray himself 
to them in many different ways. A simulator, too, who becomes mad 
for the occasion as a desperate attempt to escape punishment, wants 
one important branch of evidence, namely, previous history in which 
insanity was manifested, as in Howison's case, without relation to 
the particular act under trial, There is no feigning past history. 
But even where there was no previous insanity, the detection of its 
actual presence, or the exposure of its fraudulent assumption, would 
be equally easy to those who are in the knowledge of the light which 
has within these few years been shed on the subject. They, assu- 
redly, would run no risk of making such an exhibition as was made in 
London by the medical witnesses in the memorable case of Davies 
the tea-dealer, which elicited one shout of scorn from the whole 
press of London, and excited a feeling of general surprise all over the 
country. 

An immense advantage, at the very least, will be gained, if a con- 
sciousness of want of knowledge shall render criminal tribunals cau- 
tious, and diminish the dangerous confidence wherewith they repel 
the plea of insanity, and so often hold the insane to be sane. When 
the alternative is death or confinement for life, there is no risk of re- 
turning upon society a dangerous member, or of the guilty escaping 
from heavy punishment, even if a mistake should be committed on 
the side of mercy. But an error on the other side, the actual execu- 
tion of the irresponsible, is an unmixed calamity, without one palliat- 
ing element. When, then, the well-known symptoms of simulation, 
as Dr. Alison and even Mr. Watson said was the case with Howi- 
son, are absent, and when recognized insanity is present, public jus- 
tice and expediency, as well as mercy, demand that the scales shall 
not be made to tremble in nice adjustment, but that a large allowance 
shall be thrown into that of the accused. 



235 



No. III. 

EXTRACT FROM REPORT OF THE EDINBURGH INFANT SCHOOL 
SOCIETY. 

At a General Meeting of the Edinburgh Infant School So- 
ciety, held this day (18th May 1832,) in the Assembly 
Rooms, George-street, followed by an Exhibition of the 
Pupils ot the School, Robert Wardlaw Ramsay, Esq. 
in the Chair, the following Report, by the Committee, 
called the Ordinary Directors, was read. 5 

The Committee deem it expedient to ' preface this their First Re- 
port, with a short exposition of the principles of this association for 
the purposes of Infant Education. 

First, As it is well known that the Feelings or affections of human 
nature, in common speech termed the Dispositions, furnish the im- 
pulses, according to their direction, to virtue or vice, it is important to 
address education directly to these feelings, and thereby to combine 
moral with intellectual training, instead of confining education, as 
has hitherto almost exclusively been done in Schools, to the latter 
alone. 

Secondly, The Dispositions are capable of great improvement by 
systematic practical training, brought to bear, by exercise, directly 
upon themselves ; and positive institutions, founded upon this truth, 
are as valuable as they are new to society. 

Thirdly, The Dispositions are most pliable, and capable of a bent 
to good in infancy, before bad tendencies are formed and bad habits 
are confirmed ; and, therefore, moral training ought to commence 
with the earliest manifestations of human feeling. 

Fourthly, Mere precept will not establish those moral habits 
which flow from well regulated dispositions ; and although example 
may do much, it is apt to operate only for a moment, leaving the 
mind that has been swayed by it still liable to the influence of exam- 
ple in any other direction. Practical exercise in moral habits 
for the course of time, is an essence of moral training. To attain 
this exercise, it is necessary to collect infants in suitable numbers, 
to form a society of equals, in unrestrained but well observed inter- 
course, where the selfish feelings may be regulated, and the social 
strengthened and improved ; in which the practice shall be habitual 
of cleanliness, delicacy, refinement, good temper, gentleness, kind- 
ness, honesty, justice, and truth ; confirming good tendencies in the 
mind, and leading to virtue in the conduct ; — while at the same time 
the body is strengthened by a judicious use of air and exercise. 

Fifthly, In this manner the dispositions are prepared as a soil for 
the precepts and spirit of Christianity ; and these last judiciously 
sown, as the foundation of morals, will not, in after life, be listened 
to merely as abstract ideas on Sundays, with no application to or- 



236 INFANT SCHOOL REPORT. 

dinary life, but will be felt as practical laws, regulating every part 
of everyday conduct. 

Lastly, Intellectual training, tbough of secondary importance in 
Infant Education, should form, nevertheless, provided it be calcu- 
lated to interest and amuse, and never to overtask, an important 
object of an Infant School. For the vigorous development of the 
faculties, — before they have been wasted on mere letters, words, and 
signs, — practical lessons on real objects, and their relations to each 
other and to the pupil, constituting real ideas and useful knowledge 
of common things, should be the main intellectual occupation of 
Infant Schools ; to which end the objects themselves should be pre- 
sented, and their nature and qualities explained, while the printed 
signs or reading will be easily, incidentally, and almost insensibly 
conveyed. 

***** 

The Committee have much pleasure in reporting, that the progress 
of the School, under the tuition and superintendence of Mr. and Mrs. 
Wright, has all along been, and continues to be, in the physical, 
intellectual, moral, and religious branches, most satisfactory. Im- 
pressed besides, as the teachers both are on principle, with the vital 
importance of cleanliness, ventilation, air, and exercise, and of the 
alternation, at short intervals with children of lesson and sitting With 
play, they enjoy the satisfaction of witnessing strength and health 
restored to the weak and sickly, and increased vigour manifested by 
the robust ; while the guiding principles of the system have all along 
continued to direct their steps, which have not swerved to either hand 
into paths which may lead far away from the results to which this 
Society looked when they associated, Mr. Wilderspint, though 
distant, continues to guide its Edinburgh Model Infant School ; and 
will continue to do so, till its Directors are well convinced indeed, 
that something better than this system can be substituted. 

Visiters, who are numerous, have been much gratified by the varied 
knowledge of objects and their relations exhibited by such young 
children. The Teacher has himself collected a little museum of arti- 
cles, calculated to impress, in a systematic manner, a great number 
of natural qualities and effects. The friends of the Institution might 
greatly increase this collection, by sending articles which are to be 
found in their drawers and shelves as useless lumber. 

The attainments of the children in scripture knowledge afford the 
best commentary upon the method adopted for the earliest "inculca- 
tion of Christian Truth," and it is remarkable, that when a choice is 
given to them of the kind of anecdote to be told them by the Teacher, 
the vote is, in most cases, for a Scripture story. 

The whole economy and system of the play-ground has fully an- 
swered the most sanguine expectations entertained of it. Here is the 
true Infant School ; the school-room is but an accessory. In the 
play-ground are acquired cleanliness, cheerfulness, health activity, 
and resource ; and social affections are exercised and practised. 
The results in all these particulars are most cheering. Strangers are 
struck with the healthy, clearly, happy, active and intelligent aspect 
of the groups. Dirtiness, indelicacy, and filthiness are unknown; 
and habitual kindliness, civility, justice, and scrupubus honesty, rule 
the intercourse of the little community. Pieces of bread have often 



INFANT SCHOOL REPORT. 237 

kin untouched within the reach of the whole school for days, when 
forgotten by their owners. Instances of dishonesty have occasionally 
occurred, but they never have, without being made a lesson both to 
the little offender and his playfellows. The Teacher having been 
directed to kee t a record of instructive occurrences, has furnished 
many instances of the practical working of me system ; to which the 
committee have much satisfaction in adding the answers of above thirty 
of the parents, to a circular letter addressed generally by the Teacher, 
to obtain the opinion of the effect upon the children of attendance at 
School. A few specimens are printed in the Appendix of those grate- 
ful testimonies. The letters are of course from the most respectable 
class of parents; but there are many whose children are reaping 
perhaps comparatively the greater good, who themselves are of a 
character which cannot appreciate, and an education which cannot 
acknowledge it. It is only the Teacher, and those who, like him, 
have visited the homes — if homes they can be called — of many of the 
poor children, that can estimate the contrast between the squalor and 
wretchedness of these abodes, and the light, air, cleanliness, warmth, 
cheerfulness, occupation, goodwill and happiness of the infant school 
and play-ground ; and who can fully comprehend why the resort to 
school is so willing, and the stay so lingering. The Committee can- 
not withhold an affecting instance. One of their number when visit- 
ing the school, had his attention attracted by a little girl of about 
four years of age, who was remarkable for the gentlest demeanour, 
and, at the same time, the most miserably starved and wretched ap- 
pearance. The child seemed to cling to him in the play-ground, and 
repeatedly took hold of his hand or his coat. To complete the pic- 
ture of infant misery, one eye exhibited the mark of a severe blow. 
The Teacher's account of the little creature was, that she was the 
child of a drunken mother, who gave her the black eye in a fit of fury ! 
This woman, he added, occasionally visits the school, where she 
creates a disturbance, sometimes abusing him for detaining her child, 
and sometimes for not detaining her. The child often comes without 
her breakfast, and without a mouthful of food for the day, a want 
which Mr. and Mrs. Wright have as often supplied, even at the 
hazard of encouraging the evil which they deplore. Mr. Wright's 
explanation of the poor child's draAving near to the Director was as 
touching as true. " She is a gentle child," he said, " very unlike her 
mother, and seems to associate with school and every thing about it, 
that protection and kindness to which at home she is a stranger." 

As a school for teachers of Infant Schools, the Edinburgh Model 
School has, for its duration, done a fair portion of work ; and it has 
been found that there is a variety and intensity of interest in the sys- 
tem, which is calling forth a class of minds very superior to those of 
ordinary schoolmasters; one and all of them increase in zeal as they 
advance practically in their studies • affording a satisfactory prospect 
of a command of efficient labourers, as the harvest of Infant educa- 
tion ripens, and the demand extends. When Mr. Wright was un- 
fortunately laid aside by illness, a young man, who had spent many a 
leisure hour in the school, left his occupation as a journeyman prin- 
ter, and efficiently supplied the vacancy for many weeks ; while 
another young man, the son of the building contractor, witnessing 



238 APPENDIX TO INFANT SCHOOL REPORT. 

Mr. Wilderspin's first training of the school, as he worked about it 
as a carpenter, picked up with alacrity and eagerness the whole plan, 
studied the book, mastered the songs, and actually established a 
gratis Infant School of his own, of between thirty and forty pupils, 
which he still teaches in the evenings after his work hours ! The 
Committee know that many young men are contemplating the fitting 
of themselves for the interesting occupation, and the independence, 
which the multiplication of Infant Schools offers them. The exam- 
ple of Edinburgh (herself in the wake of Glasgow, whose success 
has led to many Infant Schools in the west of Scotland) has produ- 
ced Infant Schools already at Aberdeen, Dundee, Kinghorn, Dun- 
fermline, Portobello, Inverness, and Dingwall, and they are projected 
in other towns and places all over the country. 

JAMES SIMPSON, Conr, 
Ordinary Directors. 



APPENDIX TO THE FOREGOING REPORT. 

I. — Effects of the Moral Training. 

1. Incidents to show the good effects of exercising Kindness 
and Consideration for others, in opposition to reckless Mis- 
chief, Hardheartedness, and Cruelty; vices which render the 
lower orders dangerous and formidable. 

1. Two of the children, brothers, about five and four years of age, 
coming one morning late into school, were to go to their seats with- 
out censure, if they could give an account of what they had been 
doing, which should be declared satisfactory by the whole school, 
who should decide. They stated, separately, that they had been 
contemplating the proceedings of a large caterpillar, and noticing the 
different positions of its body as it crossed theirpath — 'that it was now 
horizontal, and now perpendicular, and presently curved, and finally 
inclined, when it escaped into a tree. The master than asked them 
abruptly, " Why did you not kill it ?" The children stared. " Could 
you have killed it ?" asked the teacher. " Yes, but that would have 
been cruel and naughty, and a sin against God." The little moralists 
were acquitted by acclamation ; having, infants as they were, mani- 
fested a character which, were it universal in the juvenile population, 
would in another generation reduce our penal code to a mass of waste 
paper, in one grand department of its bulk.* 

2. The teacher mentioned to the children one day, that he had been 
occupied about a boy and a girl who had no father or mother, and 

* This instance of practical mercy occurred strongly to my mind, one day last 
spring in London; when passing along a street, I saw several big boys with a live 
mouse at the end of a string ; I returned in a few minutes the same way and found 
they had killed it, and were heating it to atoms tcith their sticks ! ,' 



APPENDIX TO INFANT SCHOOL REPORT. 239 

whose grandfather and grandmother, who took care of them, were 
bedrid and in great poverty. The boy was seven years of age, too 
old for the Infant School, but some gentlemen, he said, were exerting 
themselves to get the boy into one of the hospitals. Here he pur- 
posely stopped to try the sympathies of Ins audience for the girl. He 
was not disappointed* seveial little voices called out at once, "O! 
Master ! what for no the lassie too ?" He assured them that the girl 
was to come to the Infant School, and to be boarded with him and 
Mrs. Wright ; and the intelligence was received with loud plaudits. 

3. One day when the children were in the play grouud, four 
boys occupied the boy's circular swing, while a stranger gentleman 
was looking on with the teacher. Conscious of being looked at, 
the little fellows were wheeling round with more than usual swift- 
ness and dexterity, when a creature of two or three years made a 
sudden dart forward into their very orbit, and in an instant must have 
been knocked down with great iorce. With a presence of mind and 
consideration, and with a mechanical skill, which to admire most we 
know not, one of the boys, about five years old, used the instant of time 
in which the singular movement was practicable, threw his whole 
body into a horizontal position, and went clear over the infant's head ! 
But this was not all : in the same well employed instant, it occurred to 
him that that movement was not enough to save the little intruder, as 
he himself was to be followed as quick as thought by the next swing- 
er. For this he provided by dropping his own feet to the ground 
and stopping the whole machine, the instant he had cleared the child's 
head ! The spectator of this admirable specimen of intellect and 
good feeling, which was all necessarily the thought and act of a mo- 
ment, had his hand instinctively in his pocket for a shilling, but was 
stopped by the teacher, who disowns all inferior motives for acts of 
kindness and justice. The little hero, however, had his reward : for 
the incident was related by the teacher in full school, in presence of 
the strangers, and was received with several rounds of hearty ap- 
plause. 

4. J. J. accused H. S. of having eat up J. j.'s dinner. It was 
proved by several .witnesses, that H. S. not only appropriated the 
dinner, but used force. The charge being proved to the satisfaction 
of the Jury (the whole school,) the same tribunal were requested by 
the teacher to decide what should be the consequences to the convict. 
One orator rose and suggested, that as H. S. had not yet eat his own 
dinner, he ought to give it to J. J. This motion, for the children 
always welcome any reasonable substitute for corporal punishment, 
was carried by acclamation. When one o'clock came, and the din- 
ner was handed over, coram publico, to J. J., H. S. was observed by 
him to be in tears, and lingering near his own dinner. They were by 
this time nearly alone, but the teacher was watching the result. The 
tears were too much for J. J., who went to H. S. threw his arms 
about his neck, told him not to cry, but to sit clown and take half. 
This invitation was of course accepted by H. S., who manifested a 
great inferiority of character to the other, and furnished an example 
of the blindness of the unjust to the justice of retribution, which they 
always feel to be mere revenge and cruelty. He could not bear 
to see J. J. even sharing his dinner, and told him with bitterness 



240 APPENDIX TO INFANT SCHOOL REPORT. 

that he would tell his mother. " Weel, weel!" said the generous 
child, " I'll gie y'd a' back again." Of course the teacher interfered 
to prevent this gross injustice ; and in the afternoon made their school- 
fellows completely aware of the part each had acted. It is not easy 
to render a character like that of H. S. liberal; but a long course of 
such practice, for precept is impotent in such cases, might much mo- 
dify what in after life would have turned out- a selfish, unjust, and 
unsocial character. 

2. Incidents *to show the good effects of practically exercising 
Honesty and Truth, — to the end of superseding another 
branch of criminal jurisprudence. 

1. One of the children lost a halfpenny in the play-ground. The 
mistress was so certain that it would be found and accounted for, 
that she lent the loser a halfpenny. Some time after, when the inci- 
dent was nearly forgotten, one of the boys, J. F. found a halfpenny 
in the play-ground, and although no one saw him find it, he brought 
it at once to the teacher. As the latter knew nothing about the loss 
of a halfpenny already alluded to, it appeared to him a halfpenny 
without an owner ; but one of the children suggested that it must be 
the lost halfpenny for which the mistress had given the substitute. 
" What, then, shall be done with it ?" Many voices answered " the 
mistress should get it." The girl who lost the halfpenny was called 
out, and at once knew her own. It was given to her, and she imme- 
diately transferred it to the mistress. The teacher then appealed to 
the whole school. " Is that right ?" " Yes ! yes ! right ! right !" 
was called out by the whole assemblage, with much applause and 
animation. This last accompaniment of their approbation is strongly 
contrasted with the moro tranquil and evidently regretting way in 
which they condemn, when any thing is wrong. 

2. A penny was found in the play-ground, which had laid so long 
as to be mouldy and rusty. It was held up for an owner, but claimed 
by none. " What shall we do with it ?" " Keep it master, keep it." 
" Why should I keep it, I have no right to it more than any one 
here." This was puzzling to all, till a' little girl, not four years old, 
stood up and said, " Put it in the box." Many voices seconded this 
excellent motion, and the master referred it to a show of hands; up 
went every hand in the school, most of the children showing both 
hands for a greater certainty, and the penny was put into the sub- 
scription-box amid cheers of animation and delight. 

3. Immediately before the vacation in August 1830, three boys 
plucked a few black currants, which had ripened on the play-ground 
wall ; fruit and flowers being cultivated to exercise self-denial and 
refinement in the children. One of the boys kept to himself double 
the quantity which he vouchsafed to each of the other two, but gave 
a part to a fourth boy, who had seen the transaction, evidently to pur- 
chase his silence ; but thinking this hopeless, he took back the gift, 
and struck the boy to give it up, remarking, that as he knew he would 
tell, he the speaker need not lose his berries into the bargain, They 
all confessed, andexpressed their sorrow, except the striker, decid- 
edly in all respects the most guilty, who maintained a bold and hard- 
ened countenance. The voice of the school was, however, merciful to 
them all, which so much affected the last-mentioned offender that he 
burst into tears. A clergyman, one of the Directors, was present, whose 



APPENDIX TO INFANT SCHOOL REPORT. 241 

eye the boy caught, and instantly brushed away his tears, and join* 
ed in the hymn which was sung at the moment. He staid behind 
the rest, assiduously assisted the master to put away the things, a 
civility he never showed before, and begged to shake hands with him 
when he went aWay. , 

4. P, M. was brought to solemn trial, before the whole school, 
for keeping up a penny of his weekly schooMee. After the trial and 
award, which were both just and judicious, the teacher asked the 
school, " How many of us have been tried now!" A voice called 
out, " J. H. has been tried." This was indignantly denied by J. H. 
The teacher turning to J. M., asking him if lie had ever been tried ? 
He hung his head, and answered " Yes." " What was it for ?" 
" Master, do you not remember yourself?'' " I do ; but are you 
any the better of your trial and punishment?" "I've never stolen 
since, any how." " What was your reason for not stealing ? " I lis- 
tened to the thing in my breast, and that told me it was a crime." 

J. M's offence had been watching, all the time of school, a 
penny-piece which had been dropped under the stove, and secretly 
appropriating it when the school was dismissed. His confession 
bore that his first purpose was to buy bowls (marbles,) but he felt 
so unhappy that he could not make -up his mind to look upon what 
he should purchase, and formed the singular resolution to expend the 
money in something eatable, that he might get it out of his sight ! 
This he did, and gave a share to a school-fellow. He was asked 
whether Iris conscience did not upbraid him. He answered " It 
did not speak very loud at first ; but I grew very unhapp •/, and was 
happier after I was tried and punished." His contrite tears mov- 
ed the compassion of his numerous judges, who wished to spare him ; 
but this was not admissible in the circumstances, and a few pats on 
the hand were the form of corporal punishment allotted him. He 
was sorely tempted, for he confessed that he kept, his eye on the 
penny-piece for two hours before he took it. 

5. The following incident was communicated by agentleman from 
England, Dr. Harrison Black, who, in company with the Chevalier 
de Frasans, Judge of Assize under Charles X., witnessed the 
whole occurrence : — The Chevalier de Frasans being present, the 
master was suddenly called into the play-ground, in consequence of 
a cry that one boy had struck another on the forehead, so as to make 
the blood flow : All the children were immediately called in, and in- 
quiry made as to who had been witnesses of the affair. Those who 
presented themselves were sent into an adjoining room, and the in- 
jured party desired to state his grievance. Ho simply said, T. B, 
had " struck him with a spade" (which had for a moment been left by 
a workman,) and that he did not believe it had been done on purpose. 
The offending party being called, said, a J. M. had told him he could 
not lift up the spade, and in trying to show that he could do it, the 
blow was given." The witnesses were called in, one by one, and 
gave their testimony with great clearness, particularly a little qua- 
ker girl. They all corroborated the statement of the accused party. 

The teacher then asked of the whole assembly of children, 
u What punishment ought to be awarded ?" The general cry was, 
" Three palmies," (i. e. three pats upon the palm of the hand,) 
21 



242 APPENDIX TO INFANT SCHOOL REPORT, 

because that punishment had been a few days before awarded to H\ 
S. But one boy rose, and exclaimed, " Noj that is not fair, for H. S* 
told a falsehood about the fault he had committed, and T. B . did not 
tell any falsehood." 

The justice of this remark seemed to be generally understood ; and 
part only of the punishment was determined upon. The culprit was 
then reminded, that although the blow had not been given intention- 
ally, still he had broken a law which forbade all the children to touch 
the tools of the workmen, and was made sensible that the punishment 
was not inflicted because the teacher was angry, but because he, T. 
B., had broken a law. The truth of this the little offender fully ac- 
knowledged to the bystanders, as well as to his master and school- 
fellows. The punishment actually inflicted was a gentle tap upon 
the hand. 

Hereupon a new and unexpected scene arose, the offended party 
seeing that all around concurred in condemning the offender, cried 
out, " I'll find a coachman's whip, and lash him," This gave oc- 
casion to another appeal to the children as to the injustice of this 
threatened second punishment, and ended by the threatener being 
made sensible that all present were now against him. As a proof, he 
said, " Don't be frightened, Tom, I'll not whip you, or tell my fa- 
ther." It appeared that he had been so short a time in the school, as 
not to have become imbued with the governing principles of the place. 

7. A little boy came to school with his hands covered with paint. 
He applied to the teacher's sister to aid him in his extremity, which 
she did effectually by dint of hot water and soap. He promised to 
reward her with a halfpenny, whenever he should get one. She 
wishing to try him, asked him some days afterwards if he had for- 
gotten his promise. He answered, No, but that he had put the first 
halfpenny he had got into the poor's plate at church. Having soon 
after got a halfpenny from a lady, he rung the teacher's house-bell, and 
gave the money to his creditor, who took it, but, after some days, 
restored it. 

3. Proofs of the success of the System, in its fundamental principle 
of governing by Love, and not by Fear, and that consistently 
with the most perfect order and discipline. 

1. The master one day intimated that he wanted a number of arti- 
cles, of a kind which he enumerated, to illustrate the lessons. He 
was next day inundated with all sorts of odds and ends, every child 

>ringing with him something, — leather, feathers, cloths, silk, stones, 
pood, glass, &c. &c. 

2. Accidentally saying that he would come and visit his pupils 
t their own homes, and if he did, how would they entertain him, 
ie question was answered, by a burst of hospitality, and the number 
nd variety of the articles of cheer enumerated were too much for 
is gravity. He observed, however, that whiskey 'was not among 
ie temptations offered him, in the competition for the preference 
f his company. 

3. A parent came one day to the school, expressly to be satisfied 
i the puzzle, as he said, it was to him, how a schoolmaster could 
jnder himself the object of love ! His own was always the object of 



APPENDIX TO INFANT SCHOOL REPORT. 243 

terror ; and, instead of running to him when he appeared, he and his 
schoolmates went offin the opposite direction, with the greatest alert- 
ness. His boy, he said, runs to the master whenever he sees him, 
and is proud to come home and tell that he has shaken hands with 
Mr. Wright, of whom, as well as of Mrs. Wright and Maggy (the lat- 
ter a worthy of three years old, the master's child, who sets an ex- 
ample to the whole school) he never ceases to speak. 

Mr. Wright requested the inquirer to remain, and see how he 
treated his scholars. He did so, and witnessed the kindness, the 
cheerfulness, and the fun which never flags, while he saw discipline 
and obedience at the same time. The children went to the play- 
ground, and to the amazement of the visiter, the teacher, ran out, 
crying, " Hare and hounds ! hare and hounds !" taking the first 
character on himself, he was instantly pursued full cry by the whole 
pack, round and round the play-ground : at last he was taken, and 
worried by an immense act of co-operation. In his extremity, he 
rang his hand-bell for school ; instantly the hounds quitted their prey, 
rushed into school, the door being scarcely wide enough for them, 
and were within a minute as still as a rank of soldiers, seated in their 
gallery, and busy with the multiplication table. The visiter went 
away, with a shrug, muttering, " Na, the like o'that I ne'er saw !" 

Many pages might be filled with anecdotes illustrative of the bene- 
ficial effects of the system in preventing the numerous fears, follies, 
envyings, discontents, and prejudices, which render the lower classes 
so intractable. The superstitious fear of ghosts, witches, &c. is prac- 
tically removed. A person informed Mr. Wright, that as he was 
crossing a churchyard, not without the habitual dread which from his 
youth he could not separate from the place, he met a little girl of five 
years old marching through all alone. " Was she not afraid ?' " Not 
a bit ; we learn at the Infant School that ghosts and all that is non- 
sense." All dirty, gross, destructive, selfish, and insolent habits are 
proscribed, and carefully prevented ; and, above all, whiskey is held 
up as the greatest of curses to society, and many a lesson is taught of 
its effects <an both mind and body* The children heard with much 
indignation, of a crowd in the street, insulting a' poor Turk, — of some 
boys who teazed an idiot — of the mob breaking windows on occasion 
of the illumination — and of the people maltreating the Doctors for 
their kindness in trying to cure the Cholera. 

N. B. It is unnecessary to give examples of the effect of Intellectu- 
al Practice, as there is less novelty in children being trained to acute- 
ness and sagacity ; and much of this is capable of exhibition to the 
public, which is not possible, on set occasions, with proofs of moral 
advancement. The results in this department, it may, however, be 
mentioned, are most satisfactory. 

II. — Letters from the Parents. 
In order to ascertain that the effects of the moral training were not 
a mere show at school, Mr. Wright was directed to write a circular 
note to a large proportion of the parents, requesting their opinion, in 
writing, of the improvement of their children attending the school, 
in learning, manners, affection, obedience, health, and happiness. 
Above thirty answers were received, of which we can only give a 



244 APPENDIX TO INFANT SCHOOL REPORT. 

very few as specimens, which we do at random. The originals may 
be seen by any one who chooses, in Mr. Wright's hands. It may in 
general be remarked that there is a striking agreement among them in 
a zealous readiness to express, in strong terms, their sense of and grati- 
tude for the advantages their children enjoy at school, and the im- 
provement of their own comfort in their intercourse with their chil- 
dren at home. The delight of the children in attending School, and 
affection for the Teacher, are mentioned in most of them. 

1. Dear Sir, -^-1 can scarcely express to you how much my children 
have been benefited by your more than excellent mode of tuition. 
Whether the many improvements so perceptible in them proceeds 
from our own qualifications, or from the general system, I know not ; 
but this I know, that before my children attended the Infant School, 
they were slow, dull, and unmanageable ; they are now active, lively, 
and obedient I am, &c. (Signed) James Forbes. 

2. Sir,— I received your letter regarding the opinion I had formed 
of my son's improvement at the Infant School. I beg leave to state, 
that it has exceeded my utmost expectation ; and in answer to your 
questions, the Infant School system, so far from alienating the affec- 
tions of children to their parents, it increases them to a high degree, 
and makes them more obedient, and promotes greatly their health 
and happiness, and they are greatly benefited by the instructions 
they receive. I have also to return my sincere thanks for your kind- 
ness and indulgence to them. I am, &c. (Signed) E. Graham. 

3. Sir,— I have the pleasure to inform you, that my child has im- 
proved in every respect. The affection of the child is not alienated 
from its parents : it is more affectionate and obedient. The health 
and happiness of the child is greatly improved and much benefited by 
the instructions received at the School. I am, &c, (Signed J 

James Fogo. 

4. Dear Sir. — It gives me great satisfaction to inform you of the 
rapid progress the child is making under your care ; indeed it is won- 
derful for so short a time. Owing to your excellent method, she has 
acquired a taste for learning she never could get at home. She has 
forgot her playthings, and if the day is so bad that she cannot go to 
school, she either sings us a song, tells a story, or goes through part 
of her school exercises the best way she can by herself. She often 
mentions some part of Scripture, although she is only five years old. 
I assure you, Sir, her love and respect for her master is great. I 
think, Sir, all this will give you pleasure to hear, and with good 
wishes for the improvement of the children, and thanks for what 
has already been done. I am, &c. (Signed) 

Catharine Robertson. 
. 5. Sir,— I am really delighted with my son for his intelligence 
since he went under your tutorage ; and I altogether approve of Ms. 
Wilderspin's System of treating children, and, in my opinion, it is not 
only now, but in future years, it will be instilled in his memory. 
And you, Sir, I am convinced, have done your duty from the affec- 
tion that he has towards you, for he is always speaking about Mr, 



APPENDIX TO INFANT SCHOOL REPORT, 245 

Wright, or giving us a recital of the useful information you give him : 
•and so much I approve of the system, that I am going to send ano- 
ther boy of mine as soon as the days get a little longer ; and please 
accept of our best thanks for your attention to our son. I am, &c. 
(Signed) Thomas Watson. 

6. Sm,— With regard to our eon's morals, we think them very 
much improved, for he has a true sense between right and wrong, 
and the greatness and goodness of God. His intellectual parts are 
as far advanced as we could expect in the time he has been at School, 
and we by no means think his affections alienated from us. As far 
as our judgment can direct us, we think it must be a great benefit to 
society. I am, &c. (Signed) James Thomson. 

Many of the other letters are both well written and worded, and all 
of them are interesting and satisfactory.* 

III.— Rules for the Society and for the Management of the School 

1. The object of the Edinburgh Infant School Society is to 
establish and support in this City a Model School for the inculcation 
of Christian truth on the infant mind, according to the mode of in- 
struction laid down in the fourth edition of Mr. Wilderspin's work on 
Infant Education ; to establish such other Schools of the same kind 
as their funds may permit, and to promote the formation of similar 
Schools both in Edinburgh and elsewhere, by affording every facility 
and encouragement in their power in favour of the extension of Infant 
Education. 

2. Donors of Five Guineas, and Subscribers of Five Shillings an- 
nually, to the funds, shall be a considered members of the Edinburgh 
Infant School Society. 

3. The affairs of the Society sh all be under the direction of a Pa- 
tron, President, Three Vice-Presidents, Twenty-four Extraordinary 
and Twelve Ordinary Directors, a Secretary and Treasurer. 

4. The active management of the Institution shall be entrusted to 
the Ordinary Directors, the Secretary and Treasurer being ex-officio 
members of that body, and five being a quorum. They shall hold 
stated Quarterly Meetings on the first Monday of January, April, 
July, and October. ' ft 

5. Every year one Vice-President, one fourth part of the number 
of Extraordinary, and also of the Ordinary Directors, shall go out in 
rotation,*and be replaced by an equal number of others elected at the 
Annual Meeting, the individuals so retiring being always eligible to 
be re-elected. 

6. Three of the Ordinary Directors shall be appointed at each 
Quarterly Meeting, especially to superintend the school ; on the first 
Monday of every month to examine into the state of the school, and to re- 
ceive and determine on all applications for admission ; and such Direc- 
tors shall report their proceedings in a book to be kept for that purpose. 

7. Such clergymen as are in the direction of the Society, together 

* Mrs.W. did not write, but called at the School to bear her willing testimony 
to her boy's change of character since he attended the School. She said he was 
previously a stubborn, wilful boy, and took twenty biddings. He now obeys for 
•one, and that cheerfully. 

21* 



246 APPENDIX TO INFANT SCHOOL REPORT. 

with any other Members who may be appointed, shall be a standing 
Committee for religious purposes. 

8. At the Quarterly Meeting in January, the Directors shall nomi- 
nate a Ladies' Visiting Committee, who shall be requested to visit 
regularly, by Sub-Committees of their number, appointed from time 
to time, to examine into the state of clothing, cleanliness,and health 
of the children, and to suggest any improvement in the state of the 
School which may^occur to them, in a book to be kept for that purpose. 

9. The master and Mistress shall be elected annually by the Or- 
dinary Directors, and be under their control. 

10. An annual General Meeting of the Society, with or without an 
exhibition of the children, as may be resolved by the Ordinary Direc- 
tors, shall be held at some convenient time in the month of May. At 
that General Meeting the Ordinary Directors shall be required to 
give in a Report of their proceedings, and of the state of their funds. 

11. The Directors shall be empowered to form whatever pro- 
visional regulations may be found requisite to enable them best to ful- 
fil the object of the Society, such regulations not becoming permanent 
till they have received the approval of the Society at a General Meet- 
ing. 

RULES FOR THE MASTER AND MISTRESS. 

1. The Master shall open and close the School each day with 
prayer. 

2. The Master and Mistress shall read the Scriptures in the 
School daily, and shall endeavour to bring Scripture truth and sound 
moral principles to bear practically upon the minds and consciences 
of the children, with a simplicity and mildness suited to their tender 
years, and shall take care that all restraints or corrections which pro- 
per discipline may require, be exempt from every species of harshness, 
anger, and violence. 

3. Either the Master or Mistress shall always superintend the chil- 
dren while in the play-grounds. 

4. The School to be kept clean, to be swept every day, and the 
floor-gallery and seats to be washed every Saturday afternoon, so as 
to be perfectly dry before Monday. 

RULES FOR THE SCHOOL. 

1. Each child to pay twopence weekly, 'which must be paid every 
Monday morning. When two or more children belong to one family, 
only one penny weekly will be required for each additional child. 

2. Children to be admitted on the first Monday of every month 
only, when a Committee of the Directors will attend to receive them. 

3. Children shall not be admitted before they are two years of age, 
nor after five years of age ; neither shall any be admitted who have 
any infectious disease, or who may not have been vaccinated or have 
had the small-pox. 

4. Parents must send their children with hands, face, and neck 
clean, their hair cut short and combed, and their clothes as clean and 
decent as possible. 

5. The hours of attendance to be, in the summer half-year from 



APPENDIX TO INFANT SCHOOL REPORT. 247 

the 1st March to the 1st October, as follows : The School to open at 
Half-past Nine, and exercise to begin at Ten precisely, and to con- 
tinue till Five, with an interval of one hour from One to Two, for din- 
ner ; and in the Winter half-year, to commence at the same time and 
to continue till Three, with half an hour interval for dinner. The 
children to be at liberty to bring their dinner, and remain within the 
premises till the School recommences. 

6. The Children absent three days, or late in coming to School for 
one week without leave, or a satisfactory excuse, shall forfeit their 
right of attendance. 

7. Persons wishing to visit the School will be admitted on Tuesdays 
and. Fridays. No individual to be admitted at any other time, except 
the visiters appointed to attend in rotation, or such as have permis- 
sion in writing from one of the Directors. 



IV. — Kinds of Articles ichich will be thankfully received at the Infant 
School in the Vennel,from the Public, for the Museum of the School. 

1. Models of ships, boats, simple machines, tools, curiosities, &c. 

2. Specimens of manufactures, common and curious. 

3. Specimens of metals, wood, nuts, and such like portable botan- 
ic articles, and of mineral stones. 

4. Foreign articles, especially from rude tribes. 

5. Pictures of costumes of various races of men, and historical and 
interesting pictures of all kinds. 

6. Stuffed birds and animals, and pictures of them. 

7. Miscellaneous articles of all kinds which will surprise, amuse, 
or instruct children from two to six years of age ; such as puzzles, 
dissected pictures and maps, changing figures, curious toys, &c. 
&c. &c. 



248 



No. IV. 

LETTER FROM THE REV. MR. CUNNINGHAM, HEAD MASTER OF 
THE EDINBURGH INSTITUTION FOR LANGUAGES, MATHEMA- 
TICS, &c. 

Edinburgh, 6. Hill-Street. 
5th March 1834. 

Dear Sir, — In answer to your inquiries, I beg leave to state tne 
result of my experience in teaching the Classics and Mathematics in 
George Watson's Hospital, and the Edinburgh Institution. 

The time allotted in Watson's Hospital, to the teaching of Latin in 
the higher classes, was two hours daily, Greek one hour, Arithmetic 
and Algebra on^hour, and Geometry one hour. This portion of time 
was found suiiicient for communicating a competent knowledge of 
Latin, and Greek, and the elements of Mathematics. In proof of this, 
1 may state, that of three pupils, who were sent to College, during the 
time in which I acted as House-Governor, one obtained a prize in the 
second Greek class, the first year of his attendance at college, and a 
prize in the Senior Humanity class the second year of his attendance ; 
two obtained prizes in the Junior Mathematical class the first year of 
their attendance ; and the third, without obtaining prizes, distinguish- 
ed himself by his knowledge of the business of each of these classes. 

I may appeal also to the manner in which the pupils acquitted them- 
selves at the annual examination, as attested by written testimonials 
from the Professors and others who attended as examinators, and to 
the appointment of two Latin Masters of that Institution in succes- 
sion, the one to the Grammar School of Dumfries, and the other to 
Madras College, at St. Andrews. 

In the institution which I now conduct, two hours daily are allotted 
to the teaching of Greek and Latin. By limiting the number of pu- 
pils, by confining their attention to what is essential to the attainment 
of a knowledge of the language, and by unremitting exertions during 
the hours of teaching, I have been enabled to read and analyze mi- 
nutely, nearly as much as is read in classes of the same standing at the 
Academy and High School. I have found that the progress of my 
pupils in reading the classics, has been greatly facilitated by the 
knowledge which they acquired in the other classes of the Institution ; 
and that they have been enabled to sustain their attention much more 
vigorously during the hours of teaching, by having it relieved by a 
change of employment. In the Institution one hour a-day is allotted 
to Geometry, and one to Arithmetic and Algebra. The age at which 
pupils usually enter on the study of Geometry, is fourteen. Two 
hours a-day devoted to these studies for two years by a boy of that 
age,, ought to qualify him, in as far as regards Mathematics, either for 



249 

the'business of life, cr for the higher classes at the University. The 
pupils attending the Institution consist of two classes, those who 
combine the study of the ancient languages, with Mathematics and 
Modern languages, and those whose attention is directed chiefly to 
the two last. Both these classes prosecute at the same time the study 
of History, and Geography, and of English literature and composition"; 
a considerable number also attend the Masters for Writing, Land- 
scape, and Architectural Drawing, and Fencing and Gymnastics. 

In addition to the studies above enumerated, I have long been of 
opinion that Natural History, and the Elements of Natural Philoso- 
phy, and Chymisti-y, might be introduced with advantage. 

The difficulty of procuring a museum, and'the necessary philoso- 
phical instruments, and a person properly qualified to give, instruc- 
tions in these branchesof knowledge, has hitherto prevented me from 
making the attempt. Until the public mind is more impressed with 
the importance of instruction in natural science, and the practicability 
of conveying this instruction, even to very young persons, such an 
attempt is not, indeed, likely to succeed.. In the mean time as much 
information as possible on these subjects is conveyed by the English 
classes. I am. Dear Sir. vours faithfullv, 

ROBT, CUNNINGHAM, 



250 



No. V. 

SPECIMEN OF THE DAILY RECORD OF DUTIES, ORGANIC, MORAL 
RELIGIOUS, AND INTELLECTUAL, AS KEPT FOR ONE WEEK. 



10. 



Organic Duties. 

Moderate and Wholesome Food, 
Air and Exercise, - 
Cleanliness, - - - 

Early Hours, but sufficient Sleep, 

Moral and Religious Duties; 

Gentleness, Forbearance, no Contention 
Courage, no Cowardice, - - 
Activity, no Listlessness or Idleness, 
Good Temper, no Passion or Cruelty, 
Openness, no Cunning or Deceit, 
Frugality no Greediness, or Miserliness 
Humility, no Pride, no Meanness, 
No Insolence, Derision, or Provocation, 
No Self-Prefer., no Jealousy, no Envy, 
Regard to good Opinion, no Shameless 
ness, ------ 

No Courting of Praise, no Vanity, 
Caution, Circumspection, no Rashness, 
Spontaneous kindness, no Coldhearted 



S< 



22, 23, 



24,25, 



Truth, Justice, Charitable Judgment 

Candour, Gratitude, 
Conscientious Duty, seen or not seen, 
Love and Obedience to God, 
Religious Duties, - 
Obedience and Deference to Parents, 
Respectfulness to Super., Equals, Inf., 
Cheerfulness, Content, - 
Fortitude, Resistance of Temptation, no 

Obstinacy, - - - - 
No Exaggerat. or Marvellous Embellish 
Refinement, no Vulgarity, - - 

Intellectual Duties. 

Accurate Obser. of Objects and Events 
Attentive Study and Improvement, 
Order and Punctuality, 
Exorcise of Reflection and Good Sense 



S T 



T 
VW 

T 
S T 

T 

T 

S T 
S T 
S T 

S T 

S T 

T 

W 

S T 
W 
T 

S T 
S T 



W 1 



£ & 



-fe_ffl 



S T 
N 
W 

S T 
S T 



VW 

W 
T 

S T 



S T 



S T 



W 



Explanation. — The figures on the left denote the Faculties concerned in the du- 
ties, (see Table, p. 110.) The pupil enters in pencil, to be inked, if approved by 
the Teacher, the fulfilment, &c. of each duty, thus, — by the letter O, if obeyed, 
N, if neglected, — T, if transgressed, — ST, if seriously transgressed. The mother, 
or teacher, alone enters W for well done, — VW, very well, when respectively 
merited. The hyphen or score means no entry called for. Each book, in quarto 
aize, exactly like the well known annual house-book from which it was copied, lasts 
the pupil a year. 



251 



No. VI. 



SUMMARY OP THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE ASSOCIATION FOR PRO- 
CURING INSTRUCTION IN USEFUL AND ENTERTAINING SCIENCE; 

i rom its Institution in 1832 to April 1834. 

I?r the summer of 1832, several individuals engaged in mercantile 
and trading avocations, and who were then attending Mr. Combe's 
evening Course of Lectures on Phrenology, expressed a strong desire 
for a more extended course during winter, along with lectures on 
some other subjects of Natural Science. With this view they resolv- 
ed to form themselves into an association for procuring such instruc- 
tion, at convenient hours, and on moderate terms ; and in order to 
make the Public acquainted with their intentions, as well as to ascer- 
tain the support likely to be obtained, they printed and circulated the 
following " Proposal for Courses of Lectures on Natural History — 
Chymistry — and Phrenology combined with Physiology." 

"The want of the means of obtaining a general knowledge of 
these sciences has long been felt by the Middle Classes of society. 
Hitherto they have possessed few opportunities for becoming ac- 
quainted with a mass of highly useful and interesting information, 
which it would be the object of these Lectures to communicate, and 
which, in its numerous applications to the purposes of life, is calcu- 
lated greatly to improve our physical, mora), and intellectual nature. 

11 The regular lectures delivered on the subjects before mentioned 
— besides being inaccessible to Females, and being delivered at hours 
inconvenient for persons engaged in ordinary business — are too pure- 
ly scientific, too little applicable to the advancement of individuals in 
general knowledge, and also too expensive, to benefit the unpro- 
fessional student. A wide field of usefulness therefore lies open, 
which may be successfully occupied by skilful teachers if duly en- 
couraged by the public. 

" It is unnecessary to enter into a lengthened statement of the ad- 
vantages of a knowledge of the sciences above named. To those 
who have been longing for such an opportunity as is now offered to 
them, the mere proposal is enough ; but to others who may have been 
hitherto indifferent about such matters, or who would seek nothing 
more than amusement after closing their daily labours, it may be pro- 
per to state, that the branches which are included in the proposed 
Courses, afford an inexhaustible supply of the most varied and inte- 
resting amusement as well as instruction. Natural Science possesses 
charms to interest both the old and the young, the learned and the 
unlearned ; and were the simple and beautiful laws by which the 
whole of nature is held together more studied and better understood 
than they generally are, how differently, indeed, would the world be 



252 PROCEEDINGS OF EDINBURGH ASSOCIATION. 

looked upon, and with what innocent, profitable, and lasting pleasure 
would those hours then be spent, which are now too often trifled 
away in frivolity and ennui, or dissipation. 

" To some it may appear strange, to many it may seem even ridicu- 
lous, to see Phrenology in the list of the proposed studies ; but the pro- 
jectors of this Course are persuaded, that Phrenology is the only phi- 
losophical system which has any claim to the character of a true 
theory of human nature, and that exhibits man in his true relation to 
the other beings in this world. While, therefore, two of the depart- 
ments of the Lectures, Natural History and Chymistry, are intended 
for instruction in the nature of inorganic or lifeless substances, and 
of organic and animal beings, — the projectors look to Phrenology 
combined with Physiology, ibr the most important of all scientific 
information — the knowledge of man's nature as an organized, anima- 
ted, and moralbeing. Without this, and a knowledge of the rela- 
tion in which man stands to other beings, the proposed lectures would 
be imperfect ; and, judging from what they have lately seen — the 
continued interest with which Mr. Combe's Evening Lectures on 
Phrenology have been attended, as also from what they have heard of 
the interest taken in similar lectures recently given at the London 
Mechanic's Institution and elsewhere — the projectors flatter them- 
selves that this part of the proposal will meet with very general ap- 
probation among those persons for whom the Courses are intended. 

" While, however, it is considered of importance that all the three 
departments of the Lectures shall be attended, it will be left to the 
choice of Subscribers to attend any one or more at pleasure." And 
with this view the following fees are fixed : — For Geology alone, 7s. 
6d. ; Chymistry alone, 10s. 6d. ; Phrenology and Physiology alone, 
10s. 6d. ; Geology and Chymistry combined, 13s. 6d.; Geology, 
Phrenology, and Physiology combined, 13s. 6d.; Chymistry, Phre- 
nology and Physiology, combined, 15s. 5 Geology, Chymistry, Phre- 
nology and Physiology, combined, 20s. — All the tickets transfer- 
able^ 

It having soon appeared that the plan was generally approved of, 
arrangements were made with Dr. Murray to give the Lectures on 
Geology and Chymistry, and with Mr. Combe to give those on Phre- 
nology and Physiology. In October a numerous meeting of Sub- 
scribers and others was held in the Waterloo Rooms, when a Report, 
explanatory of the measures which had been adopted, and of thefarther 
objects in view, was read and approved of, and a Committee ap- 
pointed for superintending the details. The number of Subscribers, 
even at the commencement of the Lectures, exceeded all expectation, 
and in a short time it became necessary, owing to the crowded state 
of the rooms, to stop the farther sale of tickets, and limit the number 
of visiters, although the latter paid 6d. for admission to each lecture. 
The remarkable success of this Winter Course will be apparent from 
the following detailed Abstract of Receipt and Expenditure, pub- 
lished in the Directors' Second Report.- 



^PROCEEDINGS OF EDINBURGH ASSOCIATION. 253 

Detailed Abstract of Receipt and Expenditure. 

RECEIPT. 

Tickets Visiters Total 

Sold. Admitted. Received. 

Geology 251. ...£69 4 0.... 142... .£3 11 0....£72 15 9 

Chymistry....229 90 0....387 9 13 6 99 13 6 

Phrenology,.. 2 25 ..89 18 6.. .700 17 10 107 8 6 



705. ..,£249 22 6., .1229. ..£30 14 6.. .£279 17 



EXPENDITURE. 



Geology & Chymistry.— Paid Dr. Murray, -j 
£52:il0: 0; Fittings in Waterloo Rooms, 
£16 : 11 : 8 ; Room Kent, Door Keeper, and I -g 11*5 n 3 
Cleaning, £ 30 : 15:8; proportion of adver- ( 
tising and Printing, £8 : 10 : 11 5 Gas, Coals, 
Stationery, &c. £ 5 : 12 : 0, . . . . j 

Phrenolosy, — Paid Fittings in Clyde-street "j 

Hall, £ 9 : 15 : 4 ; proportion of advertising I 107 8 6 
and printing, £6:5: 10 ; Mr. Combe, per j 
agreement, £91 : 7 ; 4 ; J 

Total outlay 

Surplus on Geology and Chymistry Classes, 

Donation from Mr. Combe, 



Total Surplus at 22d March 1833, 



222 


S 


9 


£57 
. 21 


3 



3 



£78 


8 


3 



At the date of the above Report, on the 25th of March 1833, Mr. 
Combe's Course was not terminated, but continued till 25th April, in 
which intermediate period 293 additional visiters were admitted; 
being in all 1218 visiters and ticket-holders for his class. At the con- 
clusion of his Course, Mr. Combe also delivered three additional 
morning Lectures on Popular Education, which were well attended, 
and the proceeds of which were added to the funds of the Association* 

It having been originally intended that the subjects to be succes- 
sively treated of should embrace all the most interesting departments 
of Natural Science, and it being now deemed expedient that these 
should be considered in the order in which they would most advanta- 
geously or naturally follow each other, the Directors agreed with Pro- 
fessor Drummond of Belfast, a gentleman highly recommended, to 
give a course of twenty-five Lectures on Botany during the summer*. 
These Lectures, notwithstanding several obstacles— such as the epi- 
demic which so generally prevailed in May, th&usual press of mer- 
cantile business during that month, and other causes — were respec- 
tably and regularly attended; 191 Tickets having been sold at 7s. 
6d. each, and 162 Visiters admitted at 6d. — the proceeds amount- 
ing in all to £75, 4s., as appears from the detailed Abstract of Re- 
ceipt and Expenditure appended to the Third printed Report. 

Following out their plan, and considering it prudent, in the mean 
time, not to repeat any Course of Lectures during two successive 
seasons, the Directors next arranged for the courses of Lectures de- 
livered during winter 1833-4, viz. on Natural Philosophy, by George 

22 



854 PROCEEDINGS OF EDINBURGH ASSOCIATION. 

Lees, A. M., of the Scottish Naval and Military Academy— ofi 
Astronomy, by the Rev. Thomas Gray of Kirkcaldy— and on Phy- 
siology and Zoology, by Mr. W. A. F. Browne, Surgeon, Stirling. 
The prices of the Tickets to each of these Courses were as fol- 
lows :— Natural Philosophy, if taken alone (30 Lectures,) 10s. 6d.j 
Astronomy alone (20 Lectures,) 9s. ; Physiology and Zoology alone 
(25 Lectures,) 7s. 6d. ; Natural Philosophy and Astronomy, if taken 
together, 14s. ; Natural Philosophy and Physiology, together, 13s. 
6d. ; Astronomy and Physiology, together, 12s. ; Natural Philoso- 
phy, Astronomy, and Physiology, together, £1. — Visiters were ad- 
mitted upon paying 6d. at the door for each Lecture on Natural Phi- 
losophy and Physiology, and Is. for each on Astronomy. 

These Lectures were commenced in the Waterloo Rooms in the 
first week of November ; but preliminary to these courses, Mr. 
Combe, at the solicitation of the Directors, repeated his Three Lec- 
tures on Popular Education ; and, from the great satisfaction which 
they gave to the highly respectable and numerous audiences who at- 
tended, the Directors further ventured to request that they might be 
published, for the benefit of all who take an interest in so important 
a subject. This request has now been also very kindly complied 
with by Mr. Comber and it is not doubted that the enlightened and 
practical views advanced in these Lectures will speedily operate in 
effecting an important improvement in our public and private semina- 
ries of Education. 

A Second General Meeting of the Subscribers was held on the 16th 
of January, when the Fourth Report of the Directors was read, and 
afterwards printed and widely circulated,— of which the following is 
an extract. 

" In the three Reports which have been published by the Directors, 
the highly interesting nature and general utility of the study of Na- 
tural Science to the young and old of both sexes were briefly explain- 
ed, and have since been so clearly demonstrated by the lecturers 
as to render it unnecessary to recur to the subject at present. It is 
sufficient to remark, that, in general, the expositions of the various 
sciences allotted to the lecturers have afforded much gratification to 
the hearers. To many, the instruction thus imparted has been al- 
ready of incalculable benefit in their professions, and other concerns 
of life ; while it has, at the same time, opened ui to them delightful 
and practical views of the human constitution — and external objects 
— of the relation in which these stand to each other — and of the wis- 
dom, goodness, and other attributes of the great Author of all,' — which 
it is probable, they would never otherwise have ob ained. It is true 
that it is impossible to acquire from lectures, either within or out^of 
the University, an intimate knowledge of the details of science, but 
still much benefit is to be derived from attendance on lecturers ; and 
it is hoped that the instruction provided by this Association has been 
such as to substitute clear and precise conceptions of subjects of great 
importance, for the obscure and confused notions which previously 
existed. To those who may wish to advance still farther in search of 
truth, the lectures are calculated to be very useful, by facilitating their 
subsequent studies, and directing them to those subjects which are 
n.ost deserving of attention. 



PROCEEDINGS OF EDINBURGH ASSOCIATIONS. 255 

" It is also gratifying to be able to state, that at Glasgow and other 
places, popular lectures on Natural Science have attracted no less 
attention. A public meeting was some time ago held at Exeter for 
procuring similar instruction, at which extracts from the Reports of 
this Association were read, and its proceedings otherwise highly 
commended. In the Autumn of 1833, Dr. Murray was called to 
Liverpool to deliver in the Royal Institution of that city, those excel- 
lent lectures on Geology which were so favourably received here last, 
winter ; and so attractive did the subject immediately prove, that 
only a few days after his arrival, he was solicited and engaged to re- 
peat the course, not only in the Mechanic's Institution of Liverpool, 
but also in that of Manchester. At Glasgow, both last winter and 
this, popular lectures have been delivered on Natural Philosophy, 
Chymistry, Anatomy, Physiology, and Phrenology, to crowded audi- 
ences ; — and Mr. Browne, our able lecturer on Physiology and Zoolo- 
gy, having complied with an invitation to lecture on Phrenology at 
Dunfermline, began his course about three weeks ago, and is at present 
attended by nearly 400 persons of both sexes, and of the most select 
portion of the community, in point of intelligence, wealth, and gene- 
ral respectability. Other places might likewise be mentioned, but 
these are sufficient ; and it is not doubted that the interest and dis- 
cussion which have been excited by Mr. Combe's talented lectures 
on Education, will be influential in speedily bringing about the time 
when instruction in Natural Science will be everywhere considered 
an indispensable branch of elementary education. In the mean 
time, popular lectures will be beneficial in affording to parents and 
guardians a practical illustration of the highly interesting and useful 
nature of such studies and will in some degree supply the want of 
primary schools for youth in this department of knowledge. 

" The success which has thus attended popular lectures, as well as 
cheap publications, is important, both as being an unequivocal symp- 
tom of the strong desire that prevails for substantial knowledge, and 
as having fully demonstrated the possibility of supplying information 
at a trifling expense to individuals, and at the same time sufficiently 
remunerating the instructers. 

" It only now remains for the Directors to lay before the Associa- 
tion a state of the obligations and income connected with all these 
courses of lectures. Detailed states of the receipt and expenditure 
up to 3d July last, have already been regularly printed and circulated, 
and it is presumed to be unnecessary here to recur to them, 



256 PROCEEDINGS OF EDINBURGH ASSOCIATION. 

"Total Receipts for 1832-3. 



CLASSES. 



Tickets 
sold. 



Phrenology, 

Chymistry, . . 

Geology, 

Three Lectures on Education, given sepa 
rately in April 1833, 

Botany, day class, 

Botany, evening class, 

Three Lectures on Education, given in 
November 1833 (in addition to the hold- 
ers of tickets to any of the other class 
es, who were admitted to the Lectures 
on Education free), 

Natural Philosophy 

Astronomy, ......... 

Physiology, ......... 



Visiters ad- 
mitted at 6d 
each. 



225 
229 
251 



192 



239 
298 
294 



387 
142 

242 at Is 
33 do. 
163 



340 

197 

114 at Is 

166 



1788 2777 
Paid to Lecturers, and other charges, 

Surplus at 16th January 1834,* . . 



Rec eipts. 



£115 16 4 



100 
73 



2 2 



75 12 



8 10 

10L 3 

105 19 6 

89 11 6 



£720 



£111 



"In the summary appended to Mr. Combe's lectures, the Directors 
intimated certain regulations which had been under consideration for 
the future government of the Institution, and which will now be laid 
before the meeting. "With regard to the first of these, namely, — that 
there shall be twenty-four Directors, one-half of whom shall be an- 
nually changed, and an equal number elected by a General Meeting 
of the members, — it may be simply noticed, that as it was obvious the 
Directors must necessarily be intrusted with somewhat extensive 
powers regarding the selections of subjects for lecture, &c, it was 
desirable that they should be pretty numerous, and that an efficient 
management should be secured as much as possible by a regular 
change of the old and an accession of new and active office-bearers. 

"It was found somewhat difficult to fix on the most desirable qua- 
lifications for constituting ordinary n imbers, in order that the condi- 
tions might be at once beneficial to them as well as to the Association. 
The Directors are of course aware, that in other public institutions, 
the payment of a sum of money, annually or otherwise, is the chief 
qualification required ; but they also know, that, in many instances, 
the subscribers derive little or no direct benefit in return ; and the 
consequence frequently is, that so soon as the public excitement or 
private zeal which originated, and for a time supported, the Institu- 
tion has abated, the members h'ave gradually withdrawn, and the 
scheme has been finally abandoned. In the present instance, there- 
fore, it is recommended that full value in tickets to the lectures shall 
always be given for the contributions. 

* From the above date to'5th April, 40 additional tickets have been sold and 367 
visiters admitted,— being in all 871 tickets disposed of, and 1184 visiters admitted^ 
during winter 1833-4. 



PROCEEDINGS OF EDINBURGH ASSOCIATION. 257 

* { Lastly, in order to diminish, in future, the great expense attend- 
ant upon room- rent, seating, and repeated fittings, which, under the cir- 
cumstances, has been hitherto necessarily incurred, it has been pro- 
posed that measures should be speedily taken by the Association for 
raising funds, by subscription, to build a proper lecture-room for 
themselves. This being a matter, however, requiring mature deli- 
beration, the directors do not deem it necessary to enter into farther 
detail regarding it at present. It may also here be remarked, that 
they have not thought it expedient to recommend the purchase of any 
scientific apparatus, or other materials, conceiving that it will be 
more advantageous to the Association, and more satisfactory to the 
respective lecturers, that each should furnish his own instruments, and 
receive remuneration accordingly. Much trouble and responsibility 
will be thus also saved to the Directors." 

Upon this Report being read and approved of, the following Regu- 
lations were unanimously agreed to. 

> " I. The name of the Institution shall be, — The Edinburgh Asso- 
ciation FOR PROVIDING INSTRUCTION IN TJsEFUL AND ENTERTAINING 

Sciences. 

" II. The subjects for Lectures shall be left to the judgment of the 
Directors for the time being. 

" III. There shall be Twenty-four Directors, one half of whom 
shall be annually changed, and an equal number elected by a Gene- 
ral Meeting of the Members ; and the said Directors shall, from 
among their own number, choose a President, Treasurer, and Secre- 
tary. 

" IV. An annual payment of One Guinea shall entitle the contri- 
butor to Free Tickets for all the Lectures, to vote in the election of 
Directors, and to enjoy all the other privileges of an ordinary member. 

" V. Individuals shall be allowed to purchase tickets for admission 
to one or more of the Lectures, without becoming regular members. I 

" VL The funds shall be deposited in a respectable bank (at pre- 
sent being so lodged,) in the names of the President, Treasurer, and: 
Secretary. 

" VII. After the present season, the Annual Meeting of Members 
for the election of Office-Bearers, and other general business, shall be 
held in the month of March." 

Such is a short outline of the present Association. The leading 
points for observation in regard to it, as was well remarked in the 
Scotsman, are the following. 

1st, It is composed of mercantile men, clerks in counting-houses 
and offices, manufacturers, with a few members of the legal profes- 
sion and students ; but almost all engaged in active industry of one 
kind or another. The lectures are delivered at half-past eight in the 
evening, to suit their convenience. There are among them no influ- 
ential literary or scientific characters. To use the words of the Lord 
Chancellor, they have " taken the business of education, with energy, 
into their own hands." They choose their own Directors, of whom 
twelve go out of office every year, and the Directors fix on the sub- 
jects to be brought forward, engage the lecturers, adjust their remune- 
ration, sell the tickets, and disburse all charges. 
22* 



358 PROCEEDINGS OF EDINBURGH ASSOCIATION". 

2dly, No stated lecturers are appointed, nor is a fixed routine of 
instruction laid down. The Directors inquire what subjects will 
prove most interesting, select these, and then [look around them for 
the most able lecturers, to teach them, and stipulate with each his 
remuneration. If any lecturer fails to interest and instruct his au- 
dience, he will have small chance of being selected in a succeeding 
year. The tendency of this principle is to encourage the appearance 
of able lecturers, and to render it a matter of necessity for those who 
have not talent for the vocation to withdraw, We recommend to the 
Directors to be decided and uncompromising in rejecting every lec- 
turer who has not given ample satisfaction to his audience. They 
ought to allow no feelings of private friendship or supposed deli- 
cacy to individuals to induce them to tolerate feebleness, ignorance, 
or want of talent for instructing. 

3dly, At these lectures, Females have an opportunity of receiv- 
ing instruction, which is denied them in nearly every other institution 
for education. They have largely availed themselves of the ad- 
vantages presented to them. Indeed, the Ladies of Edinburgh have 
earned a title to the highest estimation of the community, by the spi- 
rit with which they have entered into the study of useful knowledge. 
We could point out more than one mother in the higher ranks, who, 
after having received a fashionable education, the defects of which she 
felt in proportion as she became anxious to discharge her maternal 
duties, has repaired to these lectures, and gratefully acknowledged 
the benefits derived from them. And the same spirit has animat- 
ed the ladies of the middle rank, who compose the majority of the 
female part of the audiences. 

Athly, These lectures, it has been seen, are remarkably cheap. 
The lectures on Natural Philosophy, thirty in uumber, cost 10s. 6d. j 
on Astronomy, twenty in number, 9s. ; on Physiology and Zoology, 
twenty-five in number, 7s. 6d ; or tickets for the whole three £1. 
Visiters are likewise admitted, upon paying Is. at the door, to the 
Astronomical Course, and 6d. to the other lectures. 

5thly, The Directors have fearlessly and successively introduced 
subjects which persons of literary and philosophical habits would 
probably have considered not adapted for the education of a popular 
audience of both sexes;— we allude to Phrenology, Physiology, and 
Geology, particularly the first and second. The number of "tickets 
sold and visiters admitted to each of these, affords the best evidence 
of the sagacity with which the Directors judged of the public taste, 
when they selected these studies. 

6thly, The last feature to be noticed, is the entire absence of 
eleemosynary assistance, and the success of the Directors in raising 
funds, adequate not only to remunerate the lecturers, but to meet the 
heavy charges of large lecture-rooms in a fashionable Tavern (Wa- 
terloo,) advertising, printing upwards of 7000 copies of Reports and 
comprehensive Syllabuses, and other incidents. The Fourth Report 
shows, that, in the short period of fifteen months, they had drawn 
£720, and had in hand a balance of £111, after discharging all- 
claims against them. 



PROCEEDINGS OF EDINBURGH ASSOCIATION. 259 

This Association has received too little notice from the press, 
which may be attributed to the circumstance of no liteiary men 
being connected with it. Yet this is the very circumstance which 
gives it increased importance. It affords a gratifying example of 
what the middle class of society can do for itself; and, perhaps, 
no circumstance promises so favourable for the future glory and 
prosperity of Britain as this display, by the industrious part of the 
population, not only of the will but of the power of educating them- 
selves. 



260 



No. VII. 



EXTRACT FROM THE FIRST REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONERS 

appointed by the Lord Lieutenant to administer the Funds granted by Par- 
liament for the Education of the Poor of Ireland. Ordered, by the House of 
Commons, to be printed, March 3, 1834. 

To his Excellency the Lord Lieutenant- General and General 
Governor of Ireland. 

We, the undersigned Commissioners appointed to administer the 
Funds granted by Parliament for the Education of the Poor of Ire- 
land, beg leave to report to Your Excellency as follows : 

We commenced receiving applications for aid towards Schools in 
January 1832, and the total number made to us to the present time 
amounts to 1548. 

We have granted assistance to 789 Schools which are now in 
full operation. We made grants to 52 other Schools, which have 
since ceased to be in connexion with us ; in general, we deemed it 
right to discontinue aid to them in consequence of the reports of 
our inspectors. We have promised aid towards the building of 199 
Schools, which have not as yet been completed. 

We have rejected 216 applications, and have 292 now before us 
for consideration. 

The Schools which we already have in operation are attended by 
107,042 children ; and according to the estimates transmitted to us, 
those which are to be opened in the houses not yet finished will be 
attended by a farther number of 36,804 ; so that the whole of the 
Schools existing and in preparation will afford the benefits of edu- 
cation to 143,846. 

We have the satisfaction to state, that throughout our correspon- 
dence with the patrons of schools, we have found them disposed to 
act with perfect integrity and candour : some instances of deviation 
from our rules have been reported to us, but on inquiry into the cir- 
cumstances, we have in general received such explanations as have 
been satisfactory to us. 

An important part of the duty entrusted to us is the prepara- 
tion of books for the use of the Schools and School Libraries- We 
have hitherto directed our attention chiefly to the compilation of 
books for schools only ; we have prepared and published four num- 
bers of a series of reading books, to which we propose to add a fifth ; 
the lessons of which these books consist have been so written or se- 



REPORT OF IRISH COMMISSIONERS. 261 

lected as that, while they are used in reading exercises, they convey 
elements of knowledge to the children in regular order. We have 
also published treatises on arithmetic and book-keeping and a transla- 
tion of Clairaut's Geometry. Some books having been hastily pre- 
pared to meet the urgent necessities of the schools, will require a 
farther revision, but we are enabled to add, that the whole have al- 
ready met with very general approbation, and we propose so to 
arrange the prices and mode of sale as to bring them as much as pos- 
sible into general use. 

Besides these works on the ordinary subjects of education, we have 
compiled and printed two numbers of a series of lessons from the 
Holy Scriptures, one from the Old, and the other from the New Tes- 
tament, and we propose to go on adding to them until we complete a 
copious abstract of the narrative parts of the Sacred Volume, inter- 
spersed with suitable passages from the poetical and didactic parts of 
it. We proceed on the undertaking with perfect unanimity, and 
anticipate, from the general circulation of the work, the best results. 
It having been imputed to us that we intended to substitute these 
extracts from the Scriptures for the Sacred Volume itself, we deemed 
it necessary to guard against such misrepresentations, by annexing to 
the first number of them the following preface. 

"These selections are offered, not as a substitute for the Sacred 
Volume itself, but as an introduction to it, in the hope of their leading 
to a more general and more profitable perusal of the Word of God. 
The passages introduced have been chosen, not as being of more im- 
portance than the rest of Scripture, but merely as appearing to be 
most level to the understandings of children and youth at school, and 
also best fitted to be read under the'directions of teachers not necessa- 
rily qualified, and certainly not recognized, as teachers of religion ; no 
passage has either been introduced or omitted under the influence of 
any particular view of Christianity, doctrinal or practical." 

It has been farther imputed to us, that we denied to children the 
benefit of religious instruction, and kept the Word of God from them ; 
to guardjalso against this extraordinary .misrepresentation, we have 
introduced the following notes into our regulations : 

No. 1. " The ordinary school business, during which all the 
children, of whatever denomination they be, are required to at- 
tend, and which is expected to embrace a competent number of 
hours in each day, is to consist exclusively of instruction in those 
branches of knowledge which belong to literary and moral edu- 
cation. Such extracts from the Scriptures as are prepared under 
the sanction of the Board may be used, and are earnestly recom- 
mended by the Board to be used, during those hours allotted to 
this ordinary school business. 

No. 2. " One day in each week (independently of Sunday) is to 
be set apart for religious instruction of the children, on which day 
such pastors or other persons as are approved of by the parents 
or guardians of the children, shall have access to them for that 
purpose, whether those pastors have signed the original applica- 
tion or not. 

No. 3. " The managers of schools are also expected, should 
the parents of any of the children desire it, to afford convenient 



262 REPORT OF IRISH COMMISSIONERS. 

opportunity and facility for the same purpose, either before or 
after the ordinary school business (as the managers may deter- 
mine) on the other days of the week. 

No. 4. " Any arrangement of this description that may be 
made, is to be publicly notified in the schools, in order that those 
children, and those only, may be present at the religious in- 
struction, whose parents and guardians approve of their being so. 
No. 5. " The Reading of the Scriptures, either in the autho- 
rized or Douay version, is regarded as a religious exercise, and as 
such, to be confined to those hours which are set apart for reli- 
gious instruction. The same regulation is also to be observed 
respecting prayer. 

No. 6. "A register is to be kept in each school, recording the 
daily attendance of the children, and the average attendance in 
each week and each quarter, according to a form to be furnished 
by the Board." 
We have thus shown to all who choose to read our rules, with the 
view of understanding, not perverting them, that, while we desire to 
bring Christian children of all denominations together, so that they 
may receive instruction in common in those points of education which 
do not clash with any particular religious opinions, we take care that 
sufficient time be set apart for separate religious instruction, and that 
the ministers of God's Word, of all Christian creeds, and those ap- 
proved of by them, shall have the fullest opportunity of reading and 
expounding it, and of seeing that the children of their respective de- 
nominations do read and understand it, not only weekly, but daily, if 
they think proper. 

The success which has attended our labours, as appears by the pro- 
gress we have made, abundantly proves that the system of education 
committed to our charge has been gratefully received and approved 
by the public in general ; we trust it will continue to spread and 
prosper. 

It shall be, as it ever has been, our constant object so to administer 
it as to make it acceptable and beneficial to the wholo of His Ma- 
jesty's subjects ; to train up and unite through it the youth of the 
country together, whatever their religious differences may be, in feel- 
ings and habits of attachment and friendship towards each other, and 
thus to render it the means of promoting charity and good will 
amongst all classes of the people. 

We annex a statement of our receipts and expenditures to the 
31st December 1833, and of our present liabilities, to which we beg 
to refer. 

(Signed) Leinster. 

Rd. Dublin. 
D. Murray. 
Franc Sadleir. 
James Carlisle, 
A. R. Blake. 
Robert Holmes. 



3477 



